At St James Senior Girls’ School, London, the introduction of 6th Formers as Mental Health Champions was a student-led initiative. In my role as Mental Health Lead, I had been trained by Rachel Ewan from Mental Health and Wellbeing Training Ltd in the ‘Youth Mental Health First Aid’ course and so I got back in touch, regarding training up the girls.

The success of last year’s Mental Health Champion team saw the course oversubscribed this year with a waiting list of Year 12 students keen to train as Mental Health Champions. However, the Mental Health Champions course is not yet available online, so Rachel delivered her own online ‘Mental Health Awareness’ course instead (adapted from the one she delivered in Cambridgeshire schools), which proved a resounding success with the students, who are ready to deliver socially-distanced support to their peers over MS Teams.

The full ISA article, written by Charlotte de la Pena, can be read here.