On the 20th of May 2019, DECIPHer hosted the Supporting Teacher Mental Health & Wellbeing Schools Event. PhD student and WISE assistant Danielle Couturiaux shares her thoughts on the day.
The purpose of this event was to share and discuss the results from the WISE (Wellbeing in Secondary Education) study, a cluster randomised controlled trial that delivered Mental Health First Aid training to schools in Wales and England with the aim to improve teacher and student mental health and wellbeing. Along with the WISE team, representatives from the School Health Research Network (SHRN) and Public Health Wales also explored different aspects of teacher and student mental health and wellbeing, and opportunities to promote them. We were fortunate that Healthy School Coordinators attended the event and shared their experiences of delivering the intervention to schools. They also provided useful insights into the experience of taking part in such a large-scale research study.
Attendees were able to learn more about the different WISE study components, including how effective it was, how well the intervention was implemented, and the extent to which the intervention was acceptable.
It was great to see attendees from a range of professional backgrounds and organisations, including ESTYN, Welsh Government Public Health Wales and schools.
A big thank you to all those who contributed and presented at the event. We also appreciate the time people took off to attend the event, and the significant contributions everyone made in discussing future directions for enhancing teacher mental health and wellbeing.
For more information on the WISE project, visit https://decipher.uk.net/wise-study-update/.