Inspiring students to listen and learn how to look after their own #MentalHealth

stem4 Multi-School Teenage Mental Health Conference held at Howard of Effingham School Funded by Grant from Community Foundation for Surrey

stem4 held a very successful multi school mental health conference at Howard of Effingham School with students attending from Therfield School Leatherhead, St Teresa’s Effingham and Thomas Knyvet Ashford

stem4, the Award-winning Wimbledon charity, aimed specifically at supporting teenage mental health, delivered a well received and successful Multi Student Conference at Howard of Effingham School with three other schools from Surrey.   The Conference was funded by a Grant from the Community Foundation for Surrey.

The schools that attended the Conference included:

• Howard of Effingham
• Therfield School Leatherhead
• St Teresa’s Effingham
• Thomas Knyvet Ashford

Amanda Collyer, Howard Effingham’s wellbeing ambassador said:

“the Conference aimed to inform the students about how good mental health can be achieved and challenged any preconceived ideas that they had on this topic.  Students were encouraged to confront mental health stigmas in order to change attitudes and lives for the better.”

Dr Nihara Krause, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, CEO and Founder of stem4 who led the Conference together with Sarah Sterne, stem4’s Education Coordinator, who also presented, said:

“stem4 student conferences aim to focus on early identification and intervention, and cover the areas of mental health that stem4 offers support. These include eating disorders; anxiety and depression; self-harm and addiction together with ways to boost resilience. Our Conferences aim to inspire students, they provide a space for students to listen and learn how to look after their own mental health as well as to express, in a variety of different ways, a message to their peers about the importance of looking after their mental health. They learn what steps can be taken to identify problems early in their development preventing later life difficulties. We encourage everyone to work towards making positive changes for themselves and for others and the students provided us with lots of original ideas.”

The Conference was interactive, including discussion and group tasks. Given the strong focus of the charity on including tech within their work and data driven objectives, student learning was assessed at baseline level and then at the end of the Conference using a student handheld digital rating tool.

There was also an inspired talk from Shad Ahmad, a guest speaker for stem4, about happiness and a video from Georgina Campbell, the actress who is an Ambassador for stem4. Students listened to the speakers who shared lived experiences together with receiving clinical tips on what they can do to build resilience and manage their mental health as well as spot signs of early difficulties.

A student who attended the conference said: “I had lots of fun and now have a deeper understanding about mental health.”