Mental Health First Aid.
We all have mental health, just as we all have physical health. Mental ill health can strike at any time and can affect people from all walks of life. It is thought that around 1 in 4 people (of all age groups) will experience a mental health condition each year in England, statistics that are continuing to worsen.
Although attitudes are improving, a stigma still exists around mental ill health and as a society, we don't tend to know how to take care of our mental health like we do our physical health. This means that people may not know how to support a friend, family member or colleague experiencing a mental health issue, or where to go for support with their own mental health.
Given the type of educational setting we provide here at Castles we wanted to ensure that our teams can recognise such issues both in our students and in our colleagues at the earliest opportunity and we are delighted to announce this week that our first staff cohort have successfully completed their Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training with MHFA England.
This is an internationally recognised training course that educates people how to spot the signs and assumptions of mental ill health and to provide help on a first aid basis by improving their own mental health literacy. Mental health literacy is defined as ‘knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders, which aid their recognition, management, or prevention’ and it is this lack of understanding that is severely missing both in the general population and sadly in many school and educational settings.
We believe that identifying and being able to respond effectively to mental illness in others will be our first step in providing early support and intervention for both our students and our colleagues. This course is the first of several subject and age specific accreditations planned for our staff throughout 2022 as part of their continued professional development.
Congratulations to all of our team on their qualification success and continued commitment to our schools.
For more information regarding Mental Health and Mental Health related training please refer to MHFA England website for contact details and resources www.mhfaengland.org
