In order to commemorate World Mental Health Day 2019, stem4 has been working as hard as ever to foster positive mental health in teenagers. From hosting talks to providing resources for schools, we are delighted to have honoured the day by supporting hundreds of teens and adults alike in ensuring a better future for the mental health of young people.
Indeed, last week stem4 welcomed over 100 parents to King’s College School, Wimbledon for a special World Mental Health Day talk hosted by our founder and CEO Dr Nihara Krause, Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
The evening focused on practical strategies for supporting positive teenage mental health and included the presentation of stem4’s new app ‘Combined Minds’.
With young people’s mental health being as important as their physical health, stem4 believes it is essential that all parents and carers are adequately informed about the signs and symptoms of emerging mental health issues and what steps they can take in the event of their showing.
Mental health issues often emerge in late childhood or early adolescence and early intervention is one of the keys to successful treatment.
We were so pleased, therefore, to speak to so many parents who wished to take an active step in developing positive mental health in the teenagers in their lives, raising an amazing £1,400 in the process.
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4’s work for World Mental Health Day, however, didn’t stop there! We were also thrilled to have accumulated over 90 users of the trial version of Head Ed in time for the day. Head Ed is a clinically based video resource made specifically for secondary schools by stem4 in order to educate young people about mental health. Many schools will be playing the resilience video, in particular, today to mark the occasion and provide young people with valuable tools to help them develop positive mental health. The video is suitable for Years 7 and above and was available on a trial basis free of charge as part of our digital secondary education video pack.
Throughout the day stem4 has also been encouraging online users to make the most of our resources. Inviting people to take action and ensure the day is more than just a hashtag, we have placed a focus on directing young people and those who care about them to our website and app library. This encouragement to access all that stem4 has to offer comes just after the launch of our new website, which has been redesigned with input from teenagers. Not only does it provides a clean, modern new look with updated stem4 branding, it is also packed with updated information and resources for teens, parents, teachers and healthcare professionals.
The importance of World Mental Health Day is profound; with 1 in 8 of 5-19 yr olds in England having at least one mental health disorder in 2017 (NHS Digital, 2018), there is no better time to be drawing attention to the issue of teenage mental health. We are so pleased, therefore, to have reached so many and worked so hard to ensure a positive future for teenagers in honour of the day.
