A wellbeing and mental health teaching resource for teachers
Mental Health Education and Hauora : Teaching interpersonal skills, resilience, and wellbeing is a resource for teaching about mental health, including lesson ideas and activities.
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A Mental Health education and wellbeing resource for teachers has gone out nationwide, to schools whose students are year 7 and up, including Teen Parent Units, Activity Centres, Alternative Education providers and RTLB Clusters.
Mental Health Education and Hauora : Teaching interpersonal skills, resilience, and wellbeing is a practical resource for teaching about mental health, including lesson ideas and activities.
The Ministry of Education has delivered hard copies of the book to schools, working alongside the New Zealand Health Education Association, to provide additional resources supporting its use.
Teachers can download their free version of Mental Health Education and Hauora and supporting resources on the Health Education website(external link).
To find out more here’s Kat Wells, co-author and health teacher from Lynfield College in Tāmaki Makaurau:
Mental health teaching resource video transcript
Nau mai, afio mai, welcome!
Kia ora, ko Kat Wells tāku ingoa and I teach at Lynfield College in Tāmaki Makaurau.
We’ve been using this book with our students ‘mental health education and hauora, teaching interpersonal skills, resilience and wellbeing’. We know that young people who are happy, healthy, feel safe and confident in themselves, learn better. However, current research tells us that young people in New Zealand are experiencing unprecedented levels of loneliness and stress.
Schools can’t solve the mental health crisis alone but they do have an important role to play by checking in with students and supporting them through difficult times. As teachers, we can empower and equip young people with the skills and knowledge to navigate through challenges, changes and relationships.
This book can help support you and your school with this work. It’s a resource for teaching about mental health, including lesson ideas and activities, in areas such as hauora, resilience, identity, interpersonal skills, and wellbeing. The feedback I’ve received is that students really valued and enjoyed exploring these concepts.
Schools from year 7 and up will all receive a hard copy along with two ideas for teaching units, it’s also available online.
Nō reira, kia kaha, mauri ora!