The World Federation for Mental Health have announced that the theme this year's event is “Mental Health in an Unequal World” and Heads On have created their own campaign around this theme.
World Mental Health Day falls on Sunday 10th October this year and Heads On are encouraging schools across the 3 counties to sign up to receive their PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) lesson plans, resources and assembly introductions. Heads On are also asking participating schools to hold their own visual event by encouraging students to host a “rainbow dress down day” with suggested donations
of £1 from the students to participating. Given that the date falls on a Sunday, Heads On are holding this event for the week before and after to give schools the opportunity to participate on a day that best suits the students and school.
The last year has really seen a light shone onto mental health in our communities. Young people have all been affected by the uncertainty and disruption to their young lives. We are extremely passionate about encouraging young people of all ages to have conversations about their feelings and hopefully provide some ideas on how to self help and know where to seek help from. We have therefore designed PSHE lesson plans for primary and secondary schools whilst consulting with our CAMHS teams to produce the resources.
We really want the visual event to be as inclusive as possible so all students can participate without feeling excluded; parents are not required to purchase any new clothes or fancy dress and students can wear whatever colours they would like. We really feel this will tie in with the theme of “mental health in an unequal world". All money raised will be used by the CAMHS teams to help enhance and support their services.
We have worked in collaboration with NHS Charities across the country to help produce this project so that other Trusts’ charities can also use these resources within their own counties, so please keep your eyes open for schools across the country taking part too.
To find out more about the project or to register your school is interested, please email headsoncharity@sussexpartnership.nhs.uk or call Abi Harley on 07471 031 612.
You will receive the following items:
- PSHE Lesson plan for primary or secondary school aged pupils.
- Supporting PowerPoint Presentation.
- Supporting worksheets and activities.
- Links to supporting videos.
- List of resources to support the project for parents, carers and teachers.
- An editable poster to promote the school's rainbow dress down day.
- Heads On t-shirt for the Headteacher or Lead Teacher for the project