Education Trust shares its wellbeing message this World Mental Health Day
Today [Monday 10th October] is World Mental Health Day.
Across the globe, people have organised events and activities to mark the day and raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing.
Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust, which includes 30 schools across the region, has issued a message that hits closer to home – asking adults at school and at home to prioritise their own mental health and share this with the young people in their care.
Louise Swailes, mental health co-ordinator for Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust (BCCET), said: “The focus for World Mental Health Day at the Trust is the adults this year. It is so important that we as adults put on our own oxygen masks first before we can support our children and young people.
“Mental health and wellbeing of all of our staff as well as all of the children and young people in our care are of paramount importance to us. In school, our focus and priority is always our pupils but it is so important that we look after ourselves too.
“We try to incorporate the Five Ways to Wellbeing across the curriculum. They are: 1. Connect; 2. Be active; 3. Take notice; 4. Keep learning; and 5. Give.
“We want to use World Mental Health Day as an opportunity to promote the Five Ways to Wellbeing as a means for students, staff and parents to be encouraged to look after their mental health on a daily basis instead of attending to it only when there is a problem.
“I would love all students, staff and parents across the Trust to be familiar with the five ways which would open up a dialogue around mental health.”
The Trust’s commitment to its mental health and wellbeing strategy includes training over 80 of its staff members as mental health first aiders with the aim to increase that to over 100 by next year.
Brendan Tapping, Chief Executive officer of the Trust, believes that the Trust’s ethos has to start at the top and was one of the first members of staff to become a mental health first aider.
Brendan said: “Mental health has always been an important issue but this was amplified during the pandemic. It is important to us as a Trust that everyone – pupils, staff and parents, can be the best version of themselves and in order to achieve this mental health is key. Training as a mental health first aider allowed me to have a better understanding of how I can support colleagues and I want to encourage as many staff as possible to get involved.”
To mark World Mental Health Day across the Trust’s 25 primary schools and five secondary schools/sixth forms, staff and pupils are taking part in a range of activities including wearing yellow or green and sharing Young Minds’ #HelloYellow campaign.