SAMH is the Scottish Association for Mental Health. They deliver mental health social care support and services to young people and adults in primary care, schools and further education, among others.
SAMH wanted to develop a training resource on the topic of mental health for use by teachers and trainee teachers in Scotland.
They also wanted a resource that would equip teachers with the skills needed to respond to pupils experiencing mental health problems that would allow them to carry out their roles.
Working collaboratively with SAMH, we designed and created an eLearning module: ‘We all have mental health: an introduction for teachers.’
Developed in the Articulate Storyline authoring tool, the module provides a detailed insight into positive mental health and wellbeing. It utilises a scenario-based approach to help educate teachers on the impact mental health problems can have on young people.
To ensure that the learning applied to a diverse audience, we incorporated real life digital stories that represented common challenges faced by school children and appropriate support measures to respond with.
Crafting the content in close collaboration with SAMH subject matter experts, the engaging module includes a range of interaction types and high-quality graphics. We also designed a substantial “Extend My Learning” area with additional resources and job aids to further support teachers recognise and respond to a pupil who is experiencing a mental health problem.
Since its launch in 2019, over 2,700 teachers, head teachers, trainee teachers, school staff and others in the youth work sector have completed the eLearning module.
There has been a lot of positive feedback from users regarding the eLearning resource. Users have reported feeling more confident in recognising and responding to a pupil with mental health problems after completing ‘We all have mental health: an introduction for teachers.' Chloe Livey, Senior Campaigns Officer, Scottish Association for Mental Health
