Less than 15,000 signatures to get before 3rd May.

[Shawmind]

As you will know by now, we have partnered up with HealthUnlocked to promote our government petition to make mental health education compulsory in all UK schools. We now only need less than 15,000 signatures so please do keep sharing the petition amongst friends, colleagues, family and on your Facebook and Twitter pages (if you are on social media).

We can't lobby the government without the support of the general public.

The link to the petition is petition.parliament.uk/peti...

All members of staff at The Shaw Mind Foundation will be working tonight, all weekend and Bank Holiday Monday (unpaid!) to ensure that we get to the target of 100,000 signatures.

So please, help us with promoting the petition as much as you possibly can! petition.parliament.uk/peti...

If you want any images/photos/graphics to support you in promoting the petition or suggested wording for promoting it, then please email me [e-mail] and I will get these to you asap.

Thank you for your continued support. WE CAN DO THIS!!!

Natalie Beggs - Operations Director, The Shaw Mind Foundation

[Delzek]

I can NOT support this unless safeguards are in place ie Proper qualified people teaching this not just a teacher reading from a book as that would cause more problems ! I have stated this elsewhere! Of course better understanding of mental health issues would be a good thing but unqualified laymen teaching kids about something this serious could and probably would create wrong diagnosis and make kids think they have a mental health problem when they dont !

[Shawmind in reply to Delzek]

Delzek - this petition is identifying the need for compulsory mental health education. How it is delivered could be through a range of ways (outlined below) and is the second stage of our campaign. Getting the signatures is paramount at this stage so that we can lobby for MPs to table a debate in Westminster. If we don't get the signatures then we have a far less chance of implementing it in schools.

Who do we see as potential people delivering compulsory mental health education? Well, like you we don't want teachers with no prior knowledge of mental health teaching, reading verbatim from a text book - which could be counterproductive, for all the same reasons that you identify above. We see the possible teaching of mental health education being existing well-being specialists (who currently go to the schools who can afford it out of their budget), Mental Health First Aid England trainers or even teachers who may want to train to teach it as a subject in itself. We want it to be compulsory and the government to fund it. Much the same as sex education has recently become compulsory in England.

As a charity we are currently speaking to all of these potential stakeholders outlined above, so that any lessons would be delivered by specialists. If we are putting all this effort in to lobbying for mental health education, we want the delivery of it by people who can properly teach it.

As outlined above, how it is to be implemented by whom, is the second stage and the first stage is to get the required number of signatures.

As mentioned before, see our dedicated website for this campaign at headucationuk.org for more details of why we are fighting for this in schools. In particular, I urge you to look at the news section.

Thank you,

Natalie.

[Delzek in reply to Shawmind]

Thank you Natalie if possible can you make it clear on your request? As I now understand it better I will sign. Sometimes things get misunderstood in translation thanks Derek

[Shawmind in reply to Delzek]

Hi - alas, we can't amend the request on the government petition site as limited to the number of characters you can write. I have amended on here though. Thanks

[Delzek in reply to Shawmind]

Thank you! I am happier now I can see the motives and the hoped for end result. Thank you for making things clearer

[Delzek]

Signed and confirmed

[mrsmummy]

12,000 to go and counting!

[Shawmind in reply to mrsmummy]

It is currently at 91,862!!! x