Basic mental health awareness in schools brought by Shawmind’s Headucation2025 programme.
In 2016 Adam Shaw started Shawmind to achieve this vision; in 2017 the charity raised enough signatures to force a Parliamentary debate which led to compulsory children’s mental health education in schools from the September 2020 school year.
Shawmind’s Headucation2025 programme aims to get 150,000 teachers trained in basic mental health awareness, to protect the mental health of 2.5 million school children per year. Working with others, we are bringing a whole school approach to mental health in schools, and thanks to the generosity of companies and individuals in the community, we are pleased to bring as many of these resources as possible to schools completely free of charge.
Generation after generation has been let down through the lack of normalization of mental health. At Shawmind it is our objective to change these decades of failings and ensure that no other generation is failed ever again. – Adam Shaw, founder of Shawmind.
At the recent launch of our Lu-Ma Breathe Café, a space for people to have real conversations around mental health, Shawmind president Dr. James Espey OBE committed to making the Borough of Merton the first in London to have all teachers trained in basic mental health awareness. This initiative is supported by The Worshipful Mayor of Merton, Mike Brunt, and the former leader of Merton Council Cllr. Stephen Alambritis.
Photo: Editor Karine Torr, Mayor of Merton Cllr Mike Brunt & President James Espey Photo by Vicki Sharp
The mental health training is designed to allow teachers to work through the training at their own pace online, although they require an 80% accuracy rate in order to be CPD-certified. They can revisit any part of the course to strengthen their knowledge.
If you are a parent, teacher or Headteacher in Merton, do get in touch with us to discuss our range of mental health and wellbeing training options: contact@shawmind.org
We are calling on organisations and individuals to help us achieve this goal: please help us connect with the schools in your local area, and if you want to contribute to fund free training to the schools, please visit Shawmind.org/donate for ways you can give.
We hope that this article has been informative in the mission for basic mental health awareness in schools.
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