 Hi, I'm Pookie and I'm going to walk you through this lesson about mental health. In particular we're exploring the idea that it's okay not to be okay and we're going to think about how we can recognise the warning signs that a friend might need support with their mental health and think about how we can go about starting the conversation if we're worried. This lesson is based around a video created by some young people at Cape Cornwall School which is right down at the very, very west of Cornwall. I went to visit them recently and they've put together a fantastic resource and some really great ideas to share with you. I hope you enjoy their video and that you find their ideas helpful and that their ideas help you to create ideas of your own too so you can make this your own. Before we get into the lesson I think it's really important that we establish a few ground rules. Now you might be used to doing this from other lessons within PSHE or your wider curriculum but when we're thinking about things like mental health it's really important that we re-establish those ground rules. So I'll give you a moment to talk with your class teacher about ground rules in your class and whether you might like to add any of your own but ones I would suggest are one we need to listen to one another, two we need to respect each other's opinion, three it's important that we don't assume or judge when listening to others' points of view and four this isn't the time for us to be making disclosures and sharing our own experiences about things that are difficult. Those things really matter and I will encourage your teacher to remind you how and when to seek support if you're worried about yourself or a friend but please don't start sharing those difficult things in the middle of a lesson because it's not the right environment. Okay I'm going to pause the video now for a moment so that you can have a discussion with your teacher and the class about the appropriate ground rules before you get started. It would also be great teachers if you could highlight to your students anything they need to know around how and when to seek support if they're worried. Okay so hopefully you feel ready to get started and you feel a little bit reassured by what's been said so far. The lesson shouldn't get too difficult but it's always good for us to kind of on the side of caution because sometimes when we start thinking about things like mental health issues it can turn up some slightly tricky stuff for us. So what we're going to do now is we're going to watch the video which as I say was put together by young people down in Cornwall at Cape Cornwall School. I want you to watch it and as you watch the video I want you to have a think about why do you think the young people created this video, what do you think it represents, what's the story you think it's trying to tell and how does it make you feel and what does it make you want to do. Now you've had a bit of a chance for a general discussion about the video. I'm just going to share with you a few snippets from the young people who created the video telling you about why they made it and what they hoped it would do. The video is about how people don't always show their emotions because they may not feel comfortable to or they just don't know how to describe the way they feel. We made it so people could realise that they're not alone in their struggles and that there is always someone who'll understand what they're going through. We made the video to describe people's mental health and how they can hide it. There's lots of different forms of how people can hide it and why they do it. We made the video to help people in similar predicaments and so that they could have the courage and the ability to talk to a teacher or parent. The video is about a young girl suffering from mental health issues and we made the video to address these issues and explain to people how they can be dealt with. I think we made it and make it a bit easier for younger people with mental health to talk to someone about it and say, well, they're struggling a bit, but it's about young persons struggling but not wanting anyone to know what's going on. We wanted to make the video to show people that it is OK not to be OK and there are many other people suffering from the issues and you're not alone. Now let's look a little bit deeper into the video. There are a few moments that for me really stood out and I'd really like us to think a bit more about. So let's think first about that moment when the girls take the selfie and in the selfie you suddenly see their faces have masks on. I want you to think about what's happening there. So let's watch the snippet and then I'll give you a chance to discuss in groups or as a class what you think this represents. Well, I think it's a showing that they're trying to show that nothing's wrong with them but deep down they know that something is but they don't want anyone to know about it. It's a covering up. Well, it was meant to show how even people who are close to you might not know that they could be suffering from mental health issues as well and it's not just you. It's a very common problem. It's supposed to represent that there is no set pattern of who's got problems with mental health. It's not you, you, not you, you. It's just a random thing that happens to certain people. Dr. People are suffering from mental health issues and maybe if everyone came together we could all work it out. This part was to describe how it's not just one individual person who has mental health problems. Lots of people face them for different reasons and even if they don't show them they can still be like different severities and things like that. We put this part in the video because it shows that you don't know who could be suffering from the issues and people who are close to you could be suffering from them as well. Another moment in the video that really stood out for me was when the mask became cracked and there was an attempt to tape it up. I'd love you to watch that bit again and have a think about what's happening here, what do you think this represents? Here's what the young people down in Cornwall thought about that. It shows how people can't continuously hide it for a long period of time. Over a while it will start to break down and wear away and things will get worse. The mask cracked in the video because we wanted to show that it can become very hard to keep your emotions in and the girl in the video is desperately trying to hold it together but it became very hard. It's to show that people sometimes certain things can just chip away at the mask and mean that certain behaviours seem to be recurring and show you up more than others and that the person struggling will desperately try and repatch it and seem even happier and more joyful that it will be completely fake. Finally at the end of the video we see the moment when an adult comes and removes the mask. What do you think this represents? How do you think this might have happened? Here's what the young people down in Cornwall thought about that. When the adult intervenes the teacher takes the mask off which is showing how they reveal the student reveals their true emotions to an adult. This means they can get help so it shows that you can always tell someone you trust what you're really feeling and they will listen to you and give you advice. There's always something better and someone will understand you even if it's a teacher or a friend or parent there's someone out there who will understand and have possibly gone through what you've gone through. Well I think it shows that adults and anyone is there to listen to you once you break that barrier of wanting to talk about it perhaps and say once they start talking it's a lot easier to keep on talking about it so just shows that adult then everyone's there to talk to you about it really. This was important because people need to help in different ways so it wasn't just about the adult talking to them and telling like telling them what to do it was about them listening and then them talking back and also the child listening to to make sure that they got the help they needed in the right way. I'm going to give you a few more questions now to explore in groups or as a class to help you get a bit more from the video and we'll also hear from our young people down in Cornwall about their thoughts on each of these questions once you've had a chance to discuss as well. Now remember there aren't right or wrong answers here but hopefully this will get you thinking and help you feel a bit more able to explore these slightly tricky topics. So the first question is this idea of masks why do people wear masks when they have issues with their mental health when perhaps they need help why do we mask that what's going on there? Here's what the young people down in Cornwall thought about that. We don't need to hide them but we do because we fear that if we don't then we may get bullied or we may get amocked or shamed. We mask our issues because we're afraid of what people might think if they see our true emotions and we feel we might get picked on or bullied showing these emotions and it can be easier to hide them as you won't have to talk to someone that won't feel awkward but really when you're feeling down you need to go and seek help. We mask our issues mainly because of social anxiety of people judging you when you say what you truly feel and maybe losing friends or losing family just because of mental health issues that you can't control. Fear of being judged I think compared to you think people might think less of you if you're struggling a bit. Next I want you to have a think about what warning signs might help you to know if a friend has got struggles with their mental health even if they're working really hard to wear a mask and here's what the pupils down at Cape Corn will thought about that. I swear not wanting to go out so much with your mates and not socialising so much and we're just being generally down. Warning signs you can look out for are people changing how they look so becoming less so taking less care of themselves so not brushing their hair or doing something different that they don't normally do. Also if they become a lot less social and don't want to come to school or meet with certain people. Yeah they might not look after themselves as well or think about what they can do to benefit themselves and their health they might see people less and dress differently and just in general be anti-social and introverted. It's often really difficult to notice if someone is struggling because if they have a mask up that mask can be impeccable and don't have any cracks but it's not always oh they do this so that means this it's not it doesn't have a set pattern everyone's different and will experience things differently. Finally what do you think that we can do to be a good friend if we're worried that someone else is struggling with their mental health what might be the ways in which we can start the conversation and what might be our next steps and here are some suggestions from the peoples at Cape Cornwall. If you're worried about a friend the best thing to do is talk to them or let them talk to you to decide what they need to do. If you're worried about a friend you of course first should talk to them and see that they're okay if you don't believe they are okay then you should go to an adult who you trust or even just another person who you trust and ask some advice. Talk to them a bit and then say maybe suggest people to talk to you and get them to talk to someone perhaps. Let them know that what they're going through is okay and that their struggles are genuine and you won't judge them no matter what they say. Finally I'd like your teacher to remind you about how you can seek support if you're worried about yourself or a friend. Teachers please can you point out what are the sources of support available in school telling your pupils what they need to do if they need help and what will happen if they reach out and ask for that help. You might also find other sources of support helpful if you don't feel ready yet to open up to a trusted adult at school or at home you could think about using Childline or the Samaritans. I hope you found the lesson helpful and interesting and that it gets you started talking about mental health and remember as the Cape Cornwall pupils say it's okay not to be okay.