School Education Program | Mental Illness Education ACT

The School Education Program for Years 9 - 12 provides students with the opportunity to listen to two Volunteer Educators telling their personal stories about mental illness. Volunteer Educators either have lived experience of mental illness, or experience of living with and/or caring for someone with a mental illness. After telling their stories, Volunteer Educators give a run-down on important facts about mental illness and answer questions from students. For a fictionalised account of a typical session read this...

By educating young people in this way, MIEACT is achieving four important outcomes for young people in one program:

Increased awareness of mental illness and mental health issues
Reduction of stigma
Increased awareness of the possible warning signs of mental health problems in themselves and their peers
Increased knowledge of where to seek help early for mental health problems

A University of Canberra evaluation of the School Education Program showed that students retained these messages long after they participated in the sessions.

How does the program run?

ACT Health contracts MIEACT to deliver a specific number of sessions per year. We normally exceed the quota in our contract - in 2009-2010, we presented 181 sessions across 32 of the 40 schools and colleges in the ACT.

The presentations in this program are provided free of charge.

We contact the schools and colleges that are currently using our program to ascertain how many sessions they want in the following calendar year. MIEACT presentations are suitable for many different education streams and have been delivered to students studying: physical education, MindMatters, psychology, pastoral care and alternate education sessions.

We aim to have sessions run for 1 1/2 hours. Shorter sessions often do not let us cover all aspects of our program and usually result in teacher feedback saying ‘wish it went longer’.

Want to book a session?

Schools and colleges – both government and non-government – which do not currently use our program are welcome to contact us at any time of the year on 02 6257 1195 or via email here...

FAQ

Q: Do you have programs for Years 7 and 8?
A: Not a school education program about mental illness, but we do have a free program and intervention for Year 7 & 8 girls that looks at body image and disordered eating called Any Body’s Cool...