Recently Mrs. Cordido launched a course called Teen Mental Health First Aid. In this class you learn to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges in friends and peers.
This program is a 7-hour certification that teaches how to identify these mental health challenges from high schoolers to adults. Teachers at Wooster were given the opportunity to take this course and now so are 10th-12th graders. About 20 students started taking this course and will continue next week. In this course, you can learn how to make an action plan to help friends and peers who are facing a health crisis. It also teaches you that recovery is possible in this mental health journey.
A few volunteer faculty had the opportunity to join this course before it was announced to students. Mrs. Cordido says “This training focuses on recognizing and responding to crisis and non-crisis situations and teaches how to reduce stigma around mental health.” The teachers got to learn new ways they can approach this topic appropriately in the classroom. With these new techniques they are able to understand students on a deeper level and connect around campus.
Throughout this week I have been given this opportunity to learn more about mental health and how to identify people that are struggling. In the course they gave us a textbook that we follow along with that identifies the signs and the characteristics of someone with mental health challenges. In the course they also talk about the language of referring to someone who is battling with mental health. I took the course to learn more about how to manage and deal with mental health.
This course in general is to inspire students and teachers to educate themselves about mental health and make Wooster a better space where students and teachers feel comfortable and supported.