Last week Matt Coleman, Deputy CEO and Amy Bradshaw, Trust Mental Health & Wellbeing Lead, were invited to speak about youth mental health at a local St John's Ambulance unit.  The title of the talk was Youth Mental Health Pandemic - how to support with improved wellbeing. The aim was to share the current picture around children and young people's mental health and what we, as a Trust, are doing to address the needs. 

The statistics were eye opening for the St John's volunteers and many had a strong emotional reaction to the content we shared, as we spoke openly and honestly about the crisis we face with mental health in our schools.  We spoke about the most pressing topics we as schools are facing, including suicide awareness and prevention as part of our ongoing commitment to challenging stigma and raising awareness.  It is never an easy topic to discuss, but Matt's passionate presentation was warmly received and opened up conversations that perhaps would not have otherwise happened.    

We are incredibly proud of the work we do to support mental health in our schools and the presentation was an opportunity to reflect back on the journey we have been on over the last 7 years.  However, we know there is still more to be done.  Thankfully our determination and passion to continue to improve things for our children and young people isn't going anywhere.