Students at Hucknall Sixth Form Centre have taken part in ‘mental health peer support’ training, as part of a push from the Mental Health Foundation to improve the wellbeing of young people. The course was born out of the idea that a key source of support for young people is their peer group within the school environment.
By training older students to deliver mental health lessons to year seven students they hope to break down some of the barriers that young people put up when being taught about such personal topics by adults whom they feel are detached from their personal experiences.
The sixth form students have received training to become ‘peer educators’ and they will go on to deliver five hour-long lessons to other students on mental health and wellbeing. Feedback was positive with many of the students seeing a real benefit to themselves and younger people.
“It’s a nice way to tackle issues that arise from a young age while also providing ways to prevent them.”
“I found the first training session really helpful, it gave me a better understanding of the programme and what I do intend to do.”
“I feel like this programme will benefit me as well as others. I applied to this programme because I am determined to help other people as mental health is a big issue not only in our community but across the whole world and it’s little steps like this that are going to make a big impact.”
