World Mental Health Day falls on October 10th every year. We’ve blogged previously about ‘how teachers can support student mental health’ but sometimes a few extra resources in your toolbox are helpful.
Supporting a pupil or student with mental health is a growing part of teaching jobs, but these resources and tools can help you feel more capable and help our young people through challenging times.
Crisis Tools
These unique co-produced learning guides are designed to increase knowledge and confidence for anyone supporting young people in a mental health crisis. The Crisis Tools website features a resource sharing hub along with accessible bite-sized learning guides to help improve your knowledge and understanding of what young people might be experiencing when facing a mental health crisis.
CAMHS Resources
The CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services) site was created for young people, carers and professionals to pool together lots of helpful resources that can help people support those they care for with their health and wellbeing. They have trawled the internet to get the best guides, tools and advice so you don’t have to.
Wysa
Wysa is a global leader in AI-driven mental health support, accessed via its app, and, available both to individuals and through employer benefits programs. Wysa helps in dealing with stress, depression, and anxiety with the help of an “emotionally intelligent” bot, which uses evidence-based cognitive-behavioural techniques (CBT), meditation, breathing and mindfulness exercises, as well as micro-actions to help users build mental resilience skills. It’s available to anyone over the age of 13. It uses a friendly penguin to engage young people in a sensitive and accessible way.
The Mix
The Mix, which offers essential support for young people under 25 also has a useful tools section on their website. On the website they have lots of guides covering everything from eating disorders to suicide, and links to videos and apps for an interactive experience.
Young Minds
Young Minds is the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people’s mental health. On their website they provide a range of resources and can help signpost you to crisis help if needed. We’re a big fan of the ‘mood battery’ which is designed to help a young person better understand what might be making them feel stressed, upset or angry, and how to balance those difficult emotions with things that make them feel relaxed and supported.
If you’ve got any other great tips, comment below.
