Training school staff about student mental health

This research volume contains two papers; a literature review and an empirical paper. For the literature review, a systematic search was conducted of six databases to investigate the effectiveness of brief training workshops with school staff about student mental health. Of 17 papers found, 14 were deemed of sufficient quality and included in the review. The findings of these studies showed that staff knowledge and self-appraisals were generally improved by brief workshops although staff skills, attitudes and behaviours were not. Recommendations are made for more robust international research and training to evaluate workshops on a wider variety of topics and encompassing different methods of delivery. The empirical paper reports the evaluation of a 2.5 hour workshop delivered to five mainstream secondary schools in the West Midlands, UK in 2011. Results showed that the workshop significantly increased staff ability to identify depression in students and their confidence to support students with mental health difficulties. However, it did not increase the frequency that staff accessed mental health information from a web-site or staff dissemination of information to students. It is recommended that future workshops are designed and delivered collaboratively with education professionals to overcome barriers to change and maximise impact