At the Moray Wellbeing Hub, we are very keen to work with people of all ages to support exploring mental health. Increasingly we are asked by schools to support their curriculum by coming in to add to their class schedules as visiting facilitators. This is something we are keen to do, both from the perspective of challenging stigma and in increasing skills and awareness of what they can do as individuals around mental health.
Currently, we are not funded for schools focused work in particular, but whenever possible we do our best to work with any interested partners and see what might be possible in creating change.
Buckie High School, S3 Mental Health Awareness Day – 3rd October 2017
Buckie High School is a great example of a keen community partner in mental health. We have worked with them in the past delivering a Scottish Mental Health First Aid for staff, both from the high school itself and from associated primaries. Additionally, we are interested in their other projects such as their Living Life to the Full delivery with some students. We, therefore, jumped at the chance to come and support their mental health awareness day for S3.
The format was to be a repeated session provided six times over a morning to reach the full year group of S3. Having done a number of these kind of events in the past in a mental health education worker role many years ago, I have to say I was less keen on the format for my own wellbeing, but totally understood the reasons behind it – pressures from timetabling, aim of focused event to give more value for students and visiting organisations.
For our 20min plan, we looked at what mental health was, what helps and hinders wellbeing and finally wanted to let the students all try a mindfulness exercise or relaxation. Despite working hard to facilitate and engage the audience, this had mixed results and feedback, which again is to be expected with any group that only see you for a short time, covering a topic that is still very stigmatized. It also exhausted myself and Marion as trainers to keep trying to keep the energy up, to answer ques
tions and to challenge the silence when topics seemed too much for the audience.
Over the course of a school morning we saw approximately 120 young people, all of whom were a credit to their school and the Buckie area – yes, there were a few that were mildly disruptive and many that were totally silent, but it was clear that the topic had struck a chord with them and when you look at how many adults interact in the same way in training around mental health because of the emotive subject, if not more so, this showed that the younger audience were very receptive.
For my perspective, I really felt for them and the challenges they faced in engaging with what we were doing; trying to get them to explore mental health, such a wide topic, in such a short time with a peer group that may not always be supportive. This was not a fault of the school, but rather the situation of being a young person in an educational environment and of looking at emotive topics in a large group.
I was pleased Buckie High had given this event a go, seeding discussions in a year group which often struggle so much with wellbeing. There was much that was good about it, for example, they had other relevant partners from Sleep Scotland and Quarriers, and also a few things to learn from, things that we could work together to improve in the future. We hope that we can be supportive to the teachers behind such work in future projects and gain funding to do something more sustainable as well as a topic focused day. Thank you to all involved in such an ambitious event, we look forward to receiving the pupil’s feedback as this emerges.
Upper School Drumduan School, Forres, ‘How to be a better supporter’ – 2nd October 2017
We were delighted when Drumduan School, a Steiner School based in Forres, approached us to deliver a session to their upper school, aiming to provide more skills in supporting mental health, for a class of 18 individuals ranging from 14-18 years of age.
Working with their humanities teacher, Hester Machin, we adapted a workshop we had used in March on ‘how to be a good supporter’ to encourage them to think about how they support themselves and each other as a class.
In discussions, it was clear that because of their different set up to mainstream secondary education, it was much easier to have a session that was more in line with how we usually like to work in the community – taking time to explore a topic that was embedded in ongoing work or themes. One of the challenges we have experienced in working with schools is timetabling, which does not easily allow for long exploration unless there is a focused theme day such as Buckie High School had delivered.
This session was delivered by myself and supported by Champions Marion and Ailene, as well as Hester who helped us to link the topic with relevant class themes.
“Throughout the afternoon I found myself listening to Heidi explain in depth the details of the subject, her sense of humour and honesty created a repertoire with the students. What I saw was a person who always puts others first in areas where help is needed. I finally realised that the Moray Wellbeing Hub is not an “Island” it is a place where everyone relies on each other to grow and provide help to one and other and that “fortune always favours the Brave!” I had a very fulfilling day and was glad I had attended as I enjoyed Heidi’s lessons and Marion’s description of “Mindfulness” with a Raisin – which the young people found highly enlightening and entertaining.” Ailene.
The feedback from the class was good, students felt more empowered to support others, more connected and reflected on their own wellbeing and how they manage this. It also showed that going forward they wanted more information to build on what they had learned and also perhaps to further explore their own ideas of defining mental health – we had used the World Health Organisation definition which reminds people that mental health is about much more than lack of illness and includes being connected to a community, perhaps this could be built on further in class.
“I liked how we did activities rather than listening to someone talking”
“I enjoyed the mindfulness; so interesting especially from a general useful experience for anyone needing some more information on Mental Health.”
“I liked finding out the definition of Mental Health.”
I really enjoyed meeting the class who were a mix of ages and who managed to interact despite the subject matter and stigma they were very aware of. I liked that the feedback had some suggestions for future approaches, one pupil asked for delivery in the round and more work in pairs, which is helpful. We hope that, like our work at Buckie High, this session can be built on as an opportunity to begin to create a supportive relationship with Drumduan School and look at future projects. It would be excellent to work with the pupils to help them design and deliver approaches within the school, taking this course further and supporting the wellbeing focus at the school.
“Drumduan Upper School students enjoyed exploring mental wellbeing with Moray Wellbeing Hub at the beginning of October. The session was interactive and expertly conducted by Heidi and her team, incorporating a wonderful balance of humour with straight forward informative tasks. It has certainly raised awareness amongst the young people of mental health issues and also given them some pointers should they need them.” Hester Machin, Drumduan school, Forres
Heidi, MWH Champion & Trainer.
