What is Mental Health Literacy?
Everyone has health and mental health; managing health is part of everyday life. At some point in their lives, every person will need to know how to access and use information and services to address a health or mental health concern. A person’s ability to do this is impacted by their health literacy.
Mental health literacy is an aspect of health literacy that contains four components:
- mental health knowledge,
- the ability to build and maintain positive mental health,
- the ability to seek help and provide support, and
- reducing mental health stigma.
Increasing mental health literacy in students, caregivers, staff, and the community can lead to better mental health outcomes, greater health equity, and enhance the planning and implementation of comprehensive school mental health systems.
Mental Health Literacy Toolkit
A basic understanding of how healthy minds and bodies function, what impacts mental health, how mental health changes over time, signs and symptoms of mental health challenges, and common treatments.
- Mental Health Knowledge Resources
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Youth Mental Health First Aid Training: Youth Mental Health First Aid is designed to teach caring citizens who regularly interact with young people, how to help an adolescent (age 12-18) who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis.
Youth Mental Health Learning Series Modules: This four-module series provides a basic introduction to knowledge and mindsets about mental health that prepare educators to better support student well-being.
- Resilience and Hope Learning Module
- Responding to Youth in Crisis Learning Module
- Positive Parent Engagement Learning Module
- Compassion Fatigue to Resilience Learning Module
Trauma Sensitive Schools Online Professional Development: DPI’s free, online, on-demand professional development system. The first five modules in the series provide important learning about the prevalence and impact of trauma and on mental health.
Ability to Build and Maintain Positive Mental Health
Skills to identify activities and habits that are personally helpful for promoting well-being, consistently doing those activities, and building those habits. It also includes the ability to assess personal well-being and take action to maintain positive mental health.
- Ability to Build and Maintain Positive Mental Health Resources
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Mental Health Literacy Units of Instruction: These skills-based units of instruction were developed in partnership with the Office of Children’s Mental Health and lived experience partners. The units include lessons for elementary, middle and high school students, and focus on developing the skills that students need to maintain mental health and wellbeing and recognize and support others who may be struggling.
- Mental Health Literacy Curriculum Units and Caregiver Engagement Materials - Grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12
- Mental Health Resources - For Elementary, Middle, and High School
Cultural Inclusiveness and Equity WISE: Developed by the Central East MHTTC in partnership with the National Center for School Mental Health, this free training package will help educators learn how inequities in education impact student mental health and how implicit bias influences our perceptions and responses. Building on this foundation, educators will learn culturally inclusive classroom strategies to support student mental health.
Social and Emotional Learning: Resources include Wisconsin’s Social and Emotional Learning Competencies, resources to increase alignment and connection, build adult social and emotional well-being, and assess social and emotional competence,
Compassion Resilience Toolkit: This toolkit offers information, activities, and resources for school leadership and staff to understand, recognize, and minimize the experience of compassion fatigue and to increase compassion resilience perspectives and skills.
Classroom Wise: Developed by the MHTTC Network, in partnership with the National Center for School Mental Health this includes a free self-guided online course, video library + resource collection, and a website focused on educator mental health literacy.
Ability to Seek Help and Provide Support
The ability to communicate about mental health concerns to trusted individuals, identify and connect to community mental health resources, and use self-help strategies when needed. This also includes skills to support others in seeking help.
- Ability to Seek Help and Provide Support Resources
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Mental Health Referral Pathways: DPI’s webpage includes information and resources about how to establish school and district-wide processes and procedures used to identify student mental health needs and connect students with the appropriate mental health supports and resources.
Compassionate Response to Staff Regarding Significant Events and Disclosures: From the Compassion Resilience Toolkit, this guide includes ideas for how to provide support during and after a critical incident or when a staff member discloses their own psychological pain, how to deescalate the situation, and how to have a conversation about a referral for support.
Compassionate Action and Scenarios for Discussion: From the Compassion Resilience Toolkit, this guide outlines the steps to responding compassionately when a colleague discloses pain and provides scenarios for practice applying the steps.
Responding to Student Disclosure of Emotional Pain, Trauma, or Mental Illness: This provides guidance to school staff on how to have a supportive conversation with a student who reveals that they are struggling with their mental health.
Mental Health Stigma Reduction
Knowledge of the types of mental health stigma and the impact of mental health stigma, willingness to speak openly about mental health, the ability to identify and use strategies to reduce stigmatizing attitudes, language, and actions, and reflect on how cultural norms, experiences, and exposure to people with mental health challenges has shaped a person beliefs about mental health.
- Mental Health Stigma Reduction Resources
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The Stigma Reduction Toolkit: This DPI toolkit includes lessons that can be used with secondary students in a variety of settings, caregiver engagement materials, and a discussion guide for educators to examine their own stigmatizing beliefs and behaviors. Together, these toolkit materials can promote a resilient, hopeful, and inclusive school-community for all affected by mental health challenges.
Stigma 101 Training: From the WISE Initiative for Stigma Elimination, this presentation and facilitated discussion is a great place to start for any group looking to increase inclusion, support and hope for people living with mental health and substance use challenges.
Up to ME Curriculum: From the WISE Initiative for Stigma Elimination, the Up to Me curriculum helps people make choices on whether and how they share about mental health and other conditions. The program helps individuals with mental health challenges share their stories in a way that is empowering and hopeful, while also working to eliminate stigma surrounding mental health issues.
Safe Person Resources: This collection of resources includes a discussion guide to delve into how to be a safe person and what the seven promises look like in practice, a guided presentation to promote the safe person decals, learn about the seven promises, and develop a safe person decal distribution plan, and student skits that demonstrate the 7 Promises and a Safe Person’s commitment to offer a listening ear and effective support when able.
Awareness Posters: From the Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health, these posters can destigmatize mental health and help start the conversation.
Raise Your Voice Club: A new youth movement launched by NAMI Wisconsin that empowers teens to create a new conversation about mental health through education, leadership development and civic advocacy.
Continuous Improvement Tools
- Wisconsin Mental Health Literacy Survey for Educators
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Wisconsin Mental Health Literacy Survey for Educators: User Guide
This survey is intended to assess and help school leaders understand mental health literacy across schools and districts to help shape staff professional development and support.
- Mental Health Literacy Resource Crosswalk
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Mental Health Literacy Resource Crosswalk
Provides free and low-cost resource and supports in each component of mental health literacy.
- Talking Points for School Leaders
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Talking Points for School Leaders
Provides answers to commonly asked questions about why mental health literacy is important for educators and how increasing mental health literacy benefits everyone in the school community.
- School Mental Health Improvement
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School Mental Health Improvement: Mental Health Literacy Guide
Walks improvement teams through the Roadmap for School Mental Health Improvement, using mental health literacy as the focus
- Organizational Mental Health Literacy Survey
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Organizational Mental Health Literacy Survey
Guides improvement teams in reflecting on the degree to which their schools and districts equitably enable people to find, understand, and use information and services when making decisions about and taking action to support their mental health and the mental health of others.