Last Thursday, a day when Diana and I should by rights have been taking Tris up to Oxford, we went instead to the Surrey History Centre for the launch of a Mental Health Education Pack, under the auspices of Woking MIND. And the reason we went was that, instead of going up to Oxford, Tris was one of the two presenters doing the launching.
She and a friend, Lexy Rose, spent the last year and a half initiating and working on the pack, the purpose of which is to provide a resource for teachers to address issues of mental health in PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) classes for teenagers. Both are Oxford Experimental Psychologists, Tris still an undergraduate and Lexy a graduate; both do voluntary work at Woking MIND; and both care about young people who suffer from a mental health problem (about 1 in 10 young people, according to the statistics) and the stigma associated with it – a double jeopardy.
Their idea was to produce material to enable teachers with no prior knowledge of mental health problems to teach youngsters effectively, giving them an understanding and, more importantly, an empathy for their fellows who suffer from such problems. Over the eighteen or so months, they developed the material – lesson plans, student activity sheets, background information for teachers – and had it reviewed by experts, from Oxford academics to teachers to young sufferers.
Tris, Luke and Lexy
They also collected over a hundred personal accounts of what it feels like to suffer from depression, or psychosis, or other problem. With a little template design input from a Word master (your humble blogger coughs modestly) and a website developed especially by another friend of Tris, Luke Humphreys, they had a complete product. And since everyone freely donated their time and expertise, the pack is available for free.
But a great product is no use if nobody uses it, so the launch was to tell teachers and professionals in related areas (although intended for schools, the pack can be used in other environments – training nurses, for example) all about it. The date was picked (not by Tris, unfortunately, which is how it came to be on the day she ought to have been arriving in Oxford) and the location booked.
They wrote a press release and sent it out, and Lexy was interviewed on BBC Radio Surrey. Some thirty or forty people turned up, including proud parents of the two authors, and Woking’s MP, Jonathan Lord (Con). Although Diana knows him through her political activity as a County Councillor (LibDem), she didn’t go across and say hello. She was there as parent not County Counciller and didn’t want Tris and Lexy’s achievement to be clouded by association with opposing politics.
Tris and Lexy with Jonathan Lord, MP
The presentation, done by Tris and Lexy alternating, went well and engendered appreciation and support from those present, and of course the MP had to say some words. I mustn’t be nasty; they were very nice words. After the presentation and questions, we dived into plentiful and pleasant sandwiches and chatted with others present.
This is the website: http://www.mentalhealtheducation.org.uk
I encourage you to have a look at it. 1 in 10 young people suffer from mental health problems, but 1 in 4 adults do so at some point in their lives, so it has relevance for everyone. I especially encourage you to have a look if you are involved in teaching or education, because you might just find something useful. For free.