Conversations about staff mental health in schools

Amy Sayer FCCT, Author Why there is a need to have a conversation When I first started researching staff mental health in schools (Sayer, 2020), there was a clear and urgent need for more schools to receive training to destigmatise conversations about mental health and create a culture in which people felt they would be listened to and supported. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Managing daily changes to their role alongside the persistent fear of safety for themselves, their families and loved ones created anxiety and meant that some teachers who had never struggled with their mental health before needed extra support but weren’t always sure how to talk about it. According to Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index (2021) 77 per cent of educational professionals reported suffering from mental ill health symptoms over the past year due to work, and this is mixed with a potentially toxic combination of 57 per cent of respondents saying that they would not feel comforta