Why is END necessary?

In 2003 Rethink carried out a survey of people’s experiences of the mental health system. There were 300 respondents, 29% of whom asked for public education, reduced stigma and mental health awareness.

Why Medical Students?

Third year medical students were considered an important target group because they have not yet specialised in their chosen stream of medicine and could become any type of medical doctor. This is also the first time psychiatry is included in their training.

Why Student Teachers?

Working with teachers will be the first step in promoting a change in their attitudes and those of young people to stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health problems.

The Stigma Shout survey of over 3,000 people was carried out as part of Time to Change. It included people who had experienced mental health problems and carers for people affected by mental health problems.

Amongst its many conclusions, the survey found:

• that interventions with children were to be encouraged to help prevent them developing negative attitudes and behaviour
• just under 25% of respondents highlighted schools as the second most important place to target with anti-stigma campaigns
• almost 30% of respondents said young people should be targeted with anti-stigma training

Teaching is one of the most stressful occupations with one in three teachers experiencing mental health problems according to the National Union of Teachers (Mental Health Foundation/ Press Association, 2007).

END includes training on mental health problems for teachers personally as well as for their students.

Why Trainee Head Teachers?

As well as working with student teachers, it is also important to train senior teachers who already have an awareness of mental health within a school environment.

Our aim is to provide our training within one of the modules for the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH).

Head teachers are in an ideal position to champion change within their school and profession.

Why Social Inclusion Officers?

Social Inclusion Officers are senior teachers with pastoral care responsibilities within schools. They meet and receive professional training at local authority level at Inclusion Managers meetings.

This meeting influences Locality Governance Boards (soon to become 'Children's Locality Trusts) which can positively impact local services for young people, including mental health services.

What is the Social Contact Approach?

This model of training works by exposing subject groups to people with direct experience of mental health problems, thereby normalising and humaninsing the illnesses.

Previous research by Rethink and the Institute of Psychiatry in their Awareness in Action programme found that social contact was one of the most effective means of tackling stigma and discrimination.

By using the Social Contact Approach, we are committed to providing initial training and ongoing support for our service users and carers (involvement workers) who take part in the training. We have a dedicated Senior Involvement Officer who is in touch with the involvement workers regularly, and whom they can contact if they need support.

Why role play?

Learning how to deal with new or unusual situations can be daunting. Role play creates a safe environment to explore ways of doing things.

We use professional role players to act as someone experiencing mental health problems and their carer. A medical student is asked to volunteer to take part in the role play. This enables the student to try out their role in a safe environment, as well as being able to call for “time out” if they get stuck, then the rest of the group can make suggestions or take over the role.

At the end of a role play, there is feedback from everyone present. There are some service users and carers on hand to provide constructive feedback to those involved in the role play and to encourage the rest of the students to discuss how they would have handled it.

As one of our students said, it’s a “chance to experience these kind of cases before it’s for real!”

PR Players

The company we use is called PR Players. The actors attend a six-hour training course prior to taking part in our programme so they are fully able to meet our requirements.

They are made aware of the needs of medical students and also undertake mental health awareness training.

PR Players has an excellent history of working with medical students in their practical examinations and comes highly recommended from previous employers.

Satisfaction Feedback

Here is a selection of comments received from medical students who have been to our sessions:

• “Patients and carer inputs were more useful than text books or consultant viewpoints.”
• "I think that I have become more aware of the problems faced by people with mental health problems and their families. This will help me in the future.”
• “I feel less intimidated at the prospect of interviewing patients in these situations.”