From Awareness to Action: Why Schools Need Youth Mental Health Response Training
By Nick Praulins
Awareness was the achievement of the last decade. The question now is what a teacher does in the next five minutes after noticing that something is wrong. This article sets out what response training adds and how to make it stick.
Listen: From Awareness to Action: Why Schools Need Youth Mental Health Response Training
American English · AI-narrated
Listen to Nick Praulins explain the ideas explored in this article. Awareness was the achievement of the last decade. The question now is what a teacher does in the next five minutes after noticing that something is wrong. This article sets out what response training adds and how to make it stick.
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Most schools are now aware of student mental health. Awareness has been the achievement of the last decade: posters, assemblies, wellbeing days, policies that say the right things. The question facing schools now is different. When a teacher notices that something is wrong, do they know what to do in the next five minutes?
Awareness without a response is a heavy thing to carry
Teachers frequently tell us they can see when a student is struggling. What they are unsure about is the next step. Do they ask directly? Will asking make it worse? Who do they tell, and what happens after that? In the absence of a clear answer, the most common response is to wait and see. Waiting is rarely a decision. It is what happens when nobody has been given a script.
That hesitation has a cost. Concerns surface later, when they are harder to hold, and staff carry the weight of having noticed something they did not act on.
What response training adds
Response training gives staff three things awareness alone cannot. A way to open a conversation without needing to diagnose. A way to stay in that conversation without taking on a clinical role. And a clear handover, so the concern moves to the right person quickly.
Our NOTICE, HOLD and LEAD structure exists for exactly this. NOTICE is the shift from a vague sense that something is off to a specific, describable observation. HOLD is the conversation itself, supported by the ANCHOR steps. LEAD is the handover and follow through.
This is not therapy training
A recurring worry among staff is that response training will turn them into counsellors. The opposite is true. Clear boundaries reduce the risk of overreach. Teachers who know exactly where their role ends are more willing to start the conversation in the first place, because they are not afraid of where it might lead.
Signs your school needs this
- Concerns tend to arrive at safeguarding leads late rather than early.
- Staff describe worry about saying the wrong thing.
- Wellbeing training is delivered once and not revisited.
- Different departments handle the same situation differently.
- Support staff and new colleagues have never been included in the training.
Making it stick
One-off training fades. What lasts is a shared framework that is used in briefings, referenced in policy and refreshed each year. Our Youth Mental Health Response training is designed for staff teams, and the notice, hold and lead structure gives leaders a common reference point long after the session ends.
Evidence and sources informing this article: Caldwell et al., The Lancet Psychiatry, 2019 (opens in a new tab); Morgan et al., PLOS ONE, 2018 (opens in a new tab).
Putting this into practice as a school leader
An example from a school
A secondary school runs a wellbeing week every spring, yet pastoral referrals keep rising and staff say they don't know what to do after a student discloses. The senior team maps what already exists – training records, referral routes, who staff turn to – and finds that only the counsellor feels confident responding. They set one measurable goal for the year: every tutor trained to respond, and a referral route all staff can describe.
Questions to ask your team
- "If a student told you today they were struggling, what would you do next, and who would you tell?"
- "Which of our wellbeing activities can we show have changed anything?"
- "Where do parents go when they are worried about their child?"
Implementation checklist
- Map current training, policies and referral routes before buying anything new.
- Ask staff, not only the wellbeing lead, how confident they feel responding.
- Set one or two measurable goals for the year, for example training coverage or referral clarity.
- Give one named person ownership and protected time.
- Review progress each term and report it to governors or the board.
Research and guidance behind this
- WHO and UNICEF: Mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in schools – WHO and UNICEF framework for a whole-school approach to mental health.
- Crockett et al., JAMA Network Open, 2025 – 2025 meta-analysis of school-based mental health interventions.
- Caldwell et al., The Lancet Psychiatry, 2019 – Evidence on how schools organise mental health provision.
Originally published on letsbe-real.eu.
