Mental health initiative the best learning tool ‘in years’

A new mental health initiative aimed at secondary school students is being hailed by psychologists as the best piece of experiential learning “in years”.

Breathe, which was set up by Ger Canning, a former school principal who works with the Cork Education and Training Board, offers a range of workshops to teach teens about mental health.

“It’s essentially an early prevention programme. The structure and rationale addresses the reality that problems arise in everyone’s lives but coping with them is a strategy that can be learned,” said Ms Canning. “It covers the prevention field so it doesn’t deal with students who are at the cliff edge, rather it is teaching them to cope in order to avoid reaching that stage.”