Youth Mental Health Matters

Posted at 11:30 am on 9th October, 2019

Flixton Girls School Year 11 Health & Wellbeing prefects recently participated in this years’ ‘Youth Mental Health Matters Conference’ at Gorse Hill Studios.  This is the third annual conference FGS have attend; striving towards the development of mental health for young people in Greater Manchester. 

Students had the opportunity to pitch their idea for a simple way to improve mental health provision in their own school. FGS students came up with the idea of creating a student health and wellbeing referral form.

Students pitched their idea Dragon’s Den style to the panel of health experts, youth members and attended workshops about eating disorders, self-harm, suicide prevention and mental health and wellbeing. FGS students took part in debates about a variety of different topics and were able to collaborate with other local schools in the area.

The entire event was an enriching experience, empowering our students to become more involved in their local community and gain awareness of youth mental health both they or their peers could be affected by.

Director of Health & Wellbeing Ms Sarah Powell who escorted the students said: ‘I was so impressed by the girls, they worked really hard. I was so pleased to see them being so proactive during workshops and discussions. The whole day was really impressive.’

Ms Powell tweeted: ‘From hockey pitch to Paralympic Games! Inspiration speech from @ALJ2372 (Anna Jackson) Paralympian,Wheelchair basketball player/coach @PhoenixWBC & @Angels_Bball @YouthMHMatters conference @FlixtonGS @hltMAT

Students Hollie, Kacie, Paige and Zoe, all agreed it was a great event which opened their eyes to different experiences and those of their peers.  The students stated that they had a better understanding of how mental health affects everyone in different ways. It gave them the inspiration to make themselves heard and to show empathy for their peers.