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Shawmind is a young charity on a mental health mission. In 2017 Shawmind raised 103,000 signatures to get the important issue of children’s mental health debated in Parliament – the result of which has seen children’s mental health education being made compulsory from the 2020 school year.

This is a great outcome, especially considering that 75% of diagnosable mental health conditions present before a person’s 18th birthday.

Unfortunately, the job is not yet done.

There are around 500,000 teachers in the UK, most of whom receive no mental health training as a standard part of their teacher training. These teachers are expected not only to deliver the new mental health curriculum, but also to be the mental health first responder in the classroom – a role many feel wholly under-equipped to perform.

That is why Shawmind is dedicating itself to training 151,000 teachers over the next 5 years in the basics of mental health support. That means we aim to equip mental health first responders who will reach 2.5-million school children!

It costs just £5 per child to train a teacher in the basics of mental health support.  This Christmas, give a school child the present of a teacher trained in mental health… Buy a pack of our charity Christmas cards for just £5, or if you wish to simply donate to the project, you can do so here – all proceeds from the sale of our Christmas cards go to our teacher mental health training project.