From the Counsellor

Mental Health First Aid – Year Eight

Last week a letter was sent from the Health Education team to parents/carers of and the Year Eight students themselves informing them that teenMHFA training would be commencing in Health Education classes in the second half of this term. This relevant and well-constructed course has been conducted at GSG for six years with encouraging results, such as normalising help-seeking and using helpful, appropriate language around mental health. My profound hope is that gradually, stigmatising attitudes and behaviours in this space are reducing, as we feel more comfortable when we communicate our care and concern, for self and others, in our chats, our teachings, our learnings, and our everyday connections with family, friends and other humans. The areas we cover in the course include the following: healthy minds, the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours, the difference between mental health problems and crises, the mental health action plan (Look, Ask, Listen, Help Link with an Adult, Friendship Maintenance). The course comprises many film clips, games, activities and discussion. A Certificate of Completion of the Training will also be issued to students.

Hot off the Press – Please find here the recent study of the efficacy of this course, which has just landed on my desk today: teen Mental Health First Aid: 12-month outcomes from a cluster crossover randomized controlled trial evaluation of a universal program to help adolescents better support peers with a mental health problem (biomedcentral.com). In brief, the conclusions to this research noted that one year after training, tMHFA improves:

first aid intentions towards peers with depression and suicide risk
confidence in helping peers with mental health problems
willingness to tell someone and seek help from an adult or health professional if experiencing a mental health problem

If you consider that your child might not be sufficiently mentally fit to participate in part or all of the course, please don’t hesitate to communicate this to me via sheryl.moncur@gsg.wa.edu.au or call me on (08) 9844 0344.

Youth Mental Health First Aid - Term Three

As per recent Anchors, please contact me via email if you’re keen to be trained in this 14 hour course. So far, we are a group of eight interested people. This is a brief clip introducing you to the course: Attending Mental Health First Aid Youth Course - What to expect (vimeo.com)

The course will occur over three sessions on three consecutive Fridays: 2, 9 and 16 September from 11.30am to 4.15pm.

Please book your place for this excellent training here: https://www.trybooking.com/CBTMW

Boys in Crisis Webinar Series

This series is coming to an end this Friday and bookings are closed. However, if you’re hungry for more of the same please let me know; otherwise there will be similar offerings down the track. Some of the useful spin off links from the five featured speakers are found here:

Yours in Mental Fitness,

Ms Sheryl Moncur | Counsellor