From the Counsellor

teenMHFA Training Term One for Year Tens

Welcome to 2023. I’m so keen to get started on the Mental Health First Aid Training. Year Ten teen MHFA spans Weeks Three to Six this term. As you would most likely be aware, teenMHFA training comprises several sessions equalling five to six lessons. Our school embeds this training in the Health Ed Curriculum, which really emphasises its importance. Students will learn how to notice and support their peers who might be struggling. This training offers an approach which helps students to have a discussion with a friend/peer they are concerned about, and to link them with an adult, as well as provide them with local and online support agencies and networks. Led by Mr Paul Donaldson, the Health Ed teachers, Mr Bryce McLean and Miss Ellen Smith are well up-skilled in this area. 

MHFA is an international organisation, driven by current research, which offers numerous courses for adults and adolescents with an aim to reduce the stigma associated with beliefs about and language around mental health problems, and to increase and normalise help-seeking. Indeed, in the eight years since GSG has been conducting teenMHFA training the effectiveness of the course has been proven within our education space, as many more young people are seeking help, clarification and support, for others and themselves. Also, schools that deliver this training to their students, need to have a large percentage of their staff trained in Youth MHFA which is a 14 hour course; most GSG staff have completed this work. 

The Year Ten Health Education Classes will be trained across Weeks Three to Six of Term One and students will receive a Certificate of Completion, contingent upon their attendance at most sessions. 

Year Ten students, their parents and carers and boarding staff will receive the relevant information within the week. For other information please access the stock MHFA explanatory letter to homes and the flyer for students, and refer to the Mental Health First Aid website: teenmhfa_flyer_web_1.pdf  and Microsoft Word - 7c. What parents need to know (years 10-12).docx (mhfa.com.au)

Youth MHFA Training

Currently, six staff are being trained in this 14 hour course; we launched last Wednesday and will complete the course on Saturday 11 February. Remember, one of the fundamental protocols of MHFA is that schools must have a large percentage of staff trained in Youth if they wish to roll out cohort training to students. 

Offerings for the next Youth MHFA training for community members, and other interested staff, will be calendarised soon. So watch this space.

Conversations about NSSI (Non Suicidal Self-Injury) 

This course is available for the entire GSG school community and will be capped at 24. Conversations about NSSI is a four-hour course and has been calendarised for 3 March from 10.45am to 3.00pm, at the end of Week Five to coincide with any boarding parents who may wish to attend, prior to collecting their children from boarding. 

For further information please access nssi_mhfa_flyer_web_0.pdf and remember to contact me sheryl.moncur@gsg.wa.edu.au to register your interest. There is a $15 cost for this course which covers catering, notes and the manual. The registration period will close on 20 February and participants will receive an email that will outline details such as venue, payment, dietary requirements and what to bring.  

Kind regards and yours in managing our Mental Health,

Ms Sheryl Moncur | School Counsellor & Teacher