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Mental health promotion and suicide prevention

On October 10th, people around the world will be taking part in the annual World Mental Health Day, drawing attention to the importance of mental well-being.

Organised by the World Federation for Mental Health since 1992 and supported by many of the national and international charities, this year the theme will focus on suicide prevention.

According to the Mental Health Organization, "more than 800,000 people die by suicide a year, making it the principal cause of death among people fifteen to twenty-nine years old. The UK suicide rate is 10.1 suicides per 100,000 population with the highest rate in Scotland (13.9 suicides per 100,000 population) and the lowest in England (9.2 deaths per 100,000 population) (Office for National Statistics 2017)

WFMH President, Professor Alberto Trimboli adds: “Suicide is a global public health problem that deserves the attention of all the actors in the field of mental health, including scientific and professional organizations, organizations for mental health users and their families, and universities. It is particularly important to have the attention of national health authorities since it is their responsibility to craft policies and directives aimed at establishing strategies to prevent suicide and promote the public’s mental health. The role of both print and audiovisual communication media and of social media is no less important, since their participation can have positive as well as negative effects, depending on how they address this subject.

Join us this year as we focus on suicide prevention. We are partnering and collaborating with many groups around the world to make this an amazing year of positive change. We hope you will support our efforts and keep the spotlight on suicide prevention!”

The key topics being addressed in the activities supporting World Mental Health Day this year include:

prevention of mental illness

promotion of good health

reduction in the stigma associated with mental illness

improved access to mental health care

Ultimately the goal of WMHD is to reduce the rate of suicide throughout the world.

For more information about the campaign, visit the World Foundation for Mental Health website

For a range of mental well-being resources including teaching materials, parents guides and staff training, join our Safeguarding Essentials service. Members can login now to distribute staff training on this topic

Register now to take the bullying awareness online training from TrainingSchoolz

As the latest academic year began, figures released by The Diana Award revealed that 57% of young people have been bullied at some point in their school lives. And 35% of those bullied had missed school as a result. In addition, the figures also revealed that 36% of parents are worried that their child has behaved in a bullying manner.

As we know, the 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' guidance from the DfE asserts that "safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone's responsibility", and of course, bullying, or more specifically bullying prevention is a significant element of this.

This is why we are delighted to offer you access to free bullying awareness training from our sister site, TrainingSchoolz.

This training is designed to support schools in their understanding of policies and procedures around the different ways in which children and young people can be bullied. It covers good practice on how schools should address the issues of bullying.

The training is available free of charge for staff to complete from now until 15th November - to coincide with anti-bullying week which takes place from 11th - 15th November.

Sign-up now to complete the training

Cybersurvey 2019 is free and national

The national Cybersurvey 2019 is now open for schools to sign up to take part. This year, in partnership with Internet Matters we are taking the Cybersurvey national so that schools anywhere in the UK can gain vital insights into young people’s online experiences. The Cybersurvey has been run by Youthworks for 10 years, yielding rich and up to date information that we all need to understand the online lives of children and young people.

The survey is free to schools, colleges and alternative provision and will run from October 7th for 6 weeks. Schools and students are anonymous. To find out more and to sign up, please visit www.thecybersurvey.co.uk where you can see past reports, frequently asked questions and a sign-up form.

Adrienne Katz, Director of Youthworks who leads the Cybersurvey, explained how it has highlighted issues of concern which have helped schools and local authority services put their efforts and resources into addressing key issues. For example, our work with Kingston University has revealed the needs of vulnerable children and those with additional needs, not currently addressed by generic online safety advice and support. Some local authorities have used Cybersurvey results to determine priorities such as tackling the online lives of young carers.

In previous years, the survey has revealed the increase in visits to websites with violent videos or images, extremist content and pro-self-harm sites. However, more positively, it has also revealed a decrease in the use of chatrooms and meeting up with someone known online.

This year the Cybersurvey will explore mental wellbeing among other offline vulnerabilities.

Schools will receive the final report in March 2020 along with resources to use in school.

Find out more at www.thecybersurvey.co.uk