SMILE - Supporting Mental Illness for Lecturers and Educators

30/12/2021

I’ve been working hard listening to, helping, advising and just giving a friendly ear to those who work in education who have been finding things hard with their mental health over the Christmas period. With a new year approaching, it is a great opportunity to give yourself a mental health service and work towards a great 2022. Here are 5 tips to help you.

1. What’s the one thing that would make you happy in 2022? What could stop you achieving this? How are you going to make sure you achieve this?

2. Whats been your most negative attribute in 2021? How could you turn that into a positive in 2022?

3. How could YOU possible help improve someone’s mental health in 2022?

4. What is the one thing you can do everyday to make you smile?

5. Who can you include in your journey to achieve better mental health in 2022?

10/10/2021

Here I am trying to set a support group up for Teachers and Educators who suffer from mental health disorders.

I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in 2015 and since then I have campaigned for better awareness and support for Mental Health across schools nationwide. Instead of letting my diagnosis hold me back I have…

Had articles published on the topic of mental health in schools.

Worked with The Sun newspaper on their Su***de Awareness campaign.

Guest lectures at schools and universities on the topic of Mental Health in Adults and Children

Obtained an MSc in Child Psychology

Advised and spoken to hundreds of school workers regarding mental health.

Won Teacher of the Year down to my work with mental health.

I am relaunching the group as mental health in 2021 is still as prevalent as it can be. From 6pm onwards and weekends, I will be available for any type of support regarding anything mental health related.

10/10/2021

I am now available via What’s App to help support and advise anyone regarding anything to do with Mental Health

17/06/2016

For anyone who wants advice on mental health in school or just a friendly work. DM me and if you'd rather chat, I'll give you a number to contact me on.

12/03/2016

Been a while since I've posted directly. Reasons I can go into here plus a lot of teachers would rather talk to me directly instead of publicly. Over the past 6 months I've heard literally hundreds of your tales and experiences with mental health which has astounded me how deep a lack of awareness lies. I have also shared my tale with many of you too which has helped me and your advice has been wonderful. So basically all I'll say is please speak out if you are suffering from any stress or mental health issues and if anyone wants to chat to me directly I would be more than happy too. Also to give hope to others, the support I've had from parents has been overwhelming. Don't fear them. Their support has kept me going and knowing I mean something to them has given me the fight to battle the disorder plus be the best teacher I can be.

30/09/2015

http://youtu.be/JUsE7J-7_X8


A frank, honest and moving account of the misunderstanding of mental health in education. Here, Primary School teacher, Joe Williams, 29 from Bridgend shares his experiences and vision for mental health in school. Video courtesy of Teachmeet Online - (c) Copyright 2015

http://teachmeetonline.com. Joe Williams is a teacher of 8 years and was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in 2011. His brave and honest account of his experie...

05/07/2015

This is my upcoming article in the NASUWT magazine.

“I was initially diagnosed with depression in 2011 and over time I managed to get
over the worst of it, but at the end of September 2014 I started to notice that that it
was affecting me a lot more at work. I wasn’t under any more stress or pressure, but
it was starting to affect my concentration and my ability to do my job-at times I had to
take myself out of the classroom.
“I could feel something was very badly wrong with me and I woke up one morning
and couldn’t face leaving the house.
“Work knew I had suffered from depression before but this was something very
different. They told me to take time off and to come back when I was ready. When I
was diagnosed I didn’t know whether to admit it and whether I had to tell the
headteacher. I didn’t want to tell anyone because I was ashamed. From my
perspective the second people found out about it I thought people would think ‘he is
a mental teacher’ and parents might not want their children to be taught by me.
“I knew I was going to have to tell people at school and a friend who also works at
the school told the head and the rest of the staff were told in a meeting. Since
returning to school most people have been very supportive, but there has been one
or two who have changed around me, because, I think, they don’t know what to
expect.
“I think there definitely needs to be a clearer understanding of mental health
disorders in schools. We have plenty of training to support children with dyslexia and
other disorders and I think there needs to be better education on mental health for
both children and staff.”