headspace Promotes Mental Health Literacy Through Guinness World Record Attempt

headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation is helping the NSW Department of Education, in its attempt to break the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® title for the World's Largest Mental Health Awareness Lesson on Friday 9 November.

Kristen Douglas, National Manager, headspace School Support will be taking the lead in delivering the lesson for almost 2,000 Year 9 and 10 students from 50 schools at the QuayCentre in Sydney Olympic Park, in an official attempt to earn a place in the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS®. The current title was set in the United Kingdom in June 2018 with 857 people in attendance.

The event will introduce Year 9 and 10 students to the concept of building mental fitness and help-seeking behaviours. This is also an opportunity to raise state-wide and national awareness of mental health through the excitement and competition of a world record challenge.

The 40 minute interactive mental health lesson, which will also be livestreamed to almost 10,000 students from 80 schools across NSW, was developed as part of the new K-10 PDHPE syllabus.

Ms Douglas says, “This world record attempt is the perfect platform to highlight and promote mental health literacy to a far-reaching audience. In Australia today, mental health is one of the biggest issues that young people face, so it is vital that they are armed with the necessary skills to protect themselves and enjoy a really good life. This is also a really fun way to get young people interested and engaged in mental health and take the first steps to self-helping or help-seeking.”   

Mark Scott, Secretary of the NSW Department of Education says, “This mental health lesson has been designed to give students the resilience and skills they need to cope with stressful situations while letting them know it’s OK to ask for help. Mental fitness is appropriate to people of all ages and is just as important as our physical health, because it helps improve mindfulness, enhance resilience and build optimism. Being mentally fit doesn’t mean things won’t go wrong, but the more mentally fit we are, the better we are at coping with life’s challenges and enjoying life.”

Registrations to attend live at the venue have now closed but NSW Government schools can register to join the live broadcast: https://education.nsw.gov.au/mental-health-lesson.

For media enquiries please contact:

Suzanne La Fontaine, headspace Media & Communications Manager: 0438 278 000

Stephanie Fonti, headspace Media & Communications Coordinator: 0431 167 636

Department of Education: mediaunit@det.nsw.edu.au / 02 7814 1559

About headspace

headspace is the National Youth Mental Health Foundation providing early intervention mental health services to 12-25 year olds. headspace has 106 centres across Australia in metropolitan, regional and remote areas, as well as online and phone support services through eheadspace. headspace can help young people with mental health, physical health (including sexual health) alcohol and other drug services, and work and study support. Centre details, as well as factsheets and resources for young people and their families and friends, can be located on the headspace website: headspace.org.au