After meeting mental health nurse Carie Workman at an event of ours, we found the perfect opportunity to collaborate to uplift the younger generation to succeed. We decided to use money raised from our events to fund Carie to go into several schools and colleges throughout Worcestershire to provide mental health support to the students. This is something we are extremely proud to be able to make happen and hope we can continue this in the years to come with the support from all those who attend our events.
Here’s Carie’s story…
I was approached by Worcestershire Advance and asked if I would do a campaign to raise awareness on mental health with young people from the ages of 16 to 18 years in local Sixth Form College’s and schools. Not only did Worcestershire Advance do all the groundwork of arranging with the schools but they also funded me.
There are not many times in your life you are given an opportunity like this. I felt so privileged to be asked, to raise awareness and talk about mental health and well-being within the schools. As you can imagine I jumped at the offer, as to me this is not just a career but my passion and love to support others mental health and well-being.
I went in to ten Sixth Form Colleges and I could see that more and more young people are struggling with their mental health. It was obvious that schools have very limited resources and funding to support the young people and their mental health. Not all the schools had trained professional therapists working within the schools. I soon recognised that it was down to teachers and safeguarding officers to offer help and support to these young people. Which is highly emotional and stressful considering the teachers have no formal mental health training themselves. It should not have to be a privilege or down to a post code that schools have access to trained professionals in each and every school.
Each school I went to, my day started with an assembly. I spoke about statistics on mental health from self-harm, suicide and anxiety etc. to acknowledge that mental health is as important as our physical health. I raised the awareness of “Stop the Stigma and Talk”, how to support each other and ways to look after your own mental health. My talk ended with mindfulness and coping strategies.
For the remaining part of the day I had 1-1 sessions with students. I saw from 8 to 12 students in a day. The response was overwhelming from students and teachers. So much that I was offered positions in three schools and invited to give careers advice on Mental Health Nursing to Sixth Form students.
The feedback was extremely positive-
“I’ve never felt so listened to and I now believe I’m good enough” Student A
“You’ve helped me learn how to manage my anxiety and shown me coping skills that I’ve never heard of before” Student B
“You worked so hard to cope with the huge demand and I know the students are very grateful for the support” School C
“The assembly was most informative and helpful. Most impactive has been the time spent with our students. The drop-in sessions seemed to work very well; I wish we had more hours in the day!” School D
I was also contacted by The Nursing Times and had an interview about the campaign of supporting student’s mental health.
Worcestershire Advance made this happen, with their kindness, generosity and support.
Thank you xx
#mentalhealthmatters