Secondary school students are being equipped with skills that will help them deal with mental health issues either now or further down the line. Behind these potentially life-saving workshops and one-to-ones is newly-launched initiative Isle Listen. Sitting down with reporter Jess Ward, the team leading this tell her what they’ve been up to in recent weeks.

Early intervention, prevention and education around mental health are the foundations of Isle Listen.

Officially launched in early September, the team has gone into schools across the island to give talks about mental health, and offer support for those struggling through specific lines of referral.

For the past three weeks they have been providing tools for students to better manage their mental wellbeing at their pilot school of Queen Elizabeth II High School and King William’s College.

One in five people in their lifetime are diagnosed with a mental health condition, and 75% of these are diagnosable before the age of 18, the initiative has found.

Project lead Annabel Chambers said: ’It’s a low-level service addressing a variety of factors that can cause a deterioration of mental wellbeing.

’The factors we anticipate being the most common are academic pressures, bullying, social media, family circumstances, and social issues.’

’It’s getting to the point where they’re in a crisis before they are able to get help.’

She explained that red flags may not be showing at this stage in some of the students’ lives, but these tools could be extremely useful in their adult life when dealing with similar stresses such as changing jobs, increasing work loads and relationships.

’Every single person has mental health and it is just as important to look after as our physical health is. It’s part of being alive and it’s about learning to deal with good and the bad things that life will throw at you,’ she added.

Charlotte Linham is a full-time ’listener’ for the service. Along with her colleague, and the service’s other full-time ’listener’, Callan Kelly, she goes into the two schools to help individuals build their own set of skills to deal with their stresses head on.

’It’s about treating each individual as their own case, with no judgments or preconceptions. They all need different things from you,’ she said.

’We [as listeners] are talking to them and figuring that out with them. It’s like having lots of threads in a box. People cannot unpick them all by themselves.’

Charlotte and Callan have been in the position for a month, having been trained by Adrian Venn, cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and project clinical lead.

The team have a variety of skills and a wide range of knowledge in the area of mental health, the one thing they certainly all have in common, is a passion to make a difference.

Charlotte echoes the initiative’s belief that ’if you equip them with the skills early then you give them a better opportunity to maintain their wellbeing later in life’.

The team help students become more self aware and work with them in positive goal setting.

George Blackwell (pictured right), who has been project co-ordinator for six months, has given assemblies across the island’s different secondary schools on the subject.

He said: ’It’s all about promoting self-awareness and facilitating them on their own journey. You cannot tell them how to do it, everyone is different and has their own way to manage themselves’.

’Generally, my way of coping is exercise, but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s about getting people to recognise what works for them.’

George ’naturally progressed’ into the role as he - like his colleagues - wants to have a positive impact on educating students on good and bad mental health.

’After the first week and the first lot of assemblies, we realised we’ve had contact with over 800 students across four schools, which is now over 1,000 and continues to grow’ he said.

Lorcan O’Mahony, long term friend and supporter of MCH Psychological Services (parent charity of Isle Listen), suggested the initial concept of Isle Listen.

He thinks it would have made a big difference to him when he was at school as he was diagnosed with depression at the age of 16 and struggled through sixth form and university.

The team is working closely with the schools and starting off small, to ensure that the project is effective in supporting already existing services.

Annabel said: ’We have some people asking "Why aren’t you in every school?"

’We’re a very small team trying to do something in a measured way.

’We are excited at the prospect of scaling the service to reach the rest of the Isle of Man, but this will take time, patience and the right funding.’

’We’re all people who are passionate about the same subject. We are a small team, but what we lack in numbers we make up for in passion. Every single person goes above and beyond.

’It’s the first project of its kind on the island and so far it’s going incredibly well.’

â?¢ Find out more about the charity and how you can get involved at islelisten.im

Lorcan O’Mahony, long term friend and supporter of MCH Psychological Services (parent charity of Isle Listen), suggested the initial concept of Isle Listen.

He thinks it would have made a big difference to him when he was at school as he was diagnosed with depression at the age of 16 and struggled through sixth form and university.