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Debra Lloyd is the attachment lead and a member of the learning mentors’ team at Patcham High School in Brighton. Here Debra gives us her take on the training she received as one of the first schools to take part in the Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) in Schools Programme.
At Patcham High School we were proud to be the second school in England to take part in the Youth MHFA in Schools programme – with four of our staff joining the training to become Youth MHFA Champions. I first became aware of this initiative when our deputy head and safeguarding lead, Mark Warner, highlighted the course to me and suggested I might pursue the opportunity to offer staff some funded places. When I looked into what the content of the course covered, it seemed like a practical way to ensure our knowledge and understanding of mental health is up to date and relevant and would help us to meet the evolving needs of our students.
Attending the one day training has given me a fresh perspective. From explanations of the developing adolescent brain, to non-judgemental listening, the course provided some fantastic insights and practical skills to take away. In my own work I tend to use an attachment sensitive approach, meaning that I work therapeutically building a trusting relationship within a secure space. The Youth MHFA One Day course offered me a moment to reflect on my own practice, feelings, biases, fears and prejudices in my work supporting young people. No matter what barriers to learning are presented, I believe all children have the potential to live fulfilling and productive lives.
Of particular importance to me was the opportunity the course provided to have an honest and open discussion on the issue of suicide – something that I think many school staff in my position can view as a difficult and sensitive part of their pastoral role. In talking about this with our course instructor and sharing our thoughts and feelings as a group, I believe our staff have been able to reconsider our perceptions. I feel we have now moved from a position uncertainty in our ability to pursue and take responsibility for such a serious matter, to a place where we now feel confident, if approached by a student, to start a supportive conversation and to know the questions to ask to assess the risk of a student taking their own life.
Following the course my colleagues and I have since hosted a session as part of our weekly ‘best practice sharing forum’ to share our experience with other staff and to help raise awareness for future ‘whole school’ practices. This session also sparked discussions on supporting staff mental health and wellbeing, another area emphasised during our training. I look forward to building on my MHFA experience to advance this work in partnership with students, staff and parents.
I’d like to express my thanks to MHFA England for their fantastic support in helping us to host the Youth MHFA One Day course. They supported us in providing resources, allocating places to local schools and in ensuring our feeder schools were also given the opportunity to attend. In return we provided refreshments and a classroom for the instructor, who was extremely personable and enthusiastic, to deliver the training.
Whilst our wellbeing team at Patcham High School understand that MHFA training is not a final solution to the challenges we face in supporting our students’ mental health, it is a certainly an important part of it. If we can provide support at the earliest possible moment to our students, my hope is that we can intervene to prevent issues developing, meaning mental ill health will not severely impact our students’ development or educational attainment in the long-run.