Mental Health Basics for Educators at Monash
Overview
As an educator, you can play an important role in creating a learning environment where students feel supported, connected and able to seek help when they need it.
This module builds your confidence to recognise when a student may be struggling, know how to respond, and understand when and how to connect them with professional support. You’ll explore common signs of distress, practice how to check in and listen, and learn what to do when a situation may be a mental health crisis.
You’ll also consider your own wellbeing and develop strategies for self-care when supporting others takes an emotional toll. Finally, you’ll look beyond individual conversations to explore how thoughtful unit, curriculum, and assessment design can help create learning environments that support students’ mental health from the outset.
Through realistic scenarios, practical activities, and reflection, you’ll develop approaches you can apply in your own teaching and feel better prepared to support both your students and yourself.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, you will be able to:
- Recognise common signs of distress in students.
- Apply appropriate strategies to respond to common signs of distress in students.
- Apply appropriate strategies to respond to mental health crises in students.
- Recognise the importance of effective self-care strategies, both for general wellbeing and particularly after responding to situations that are beyond your control.
- Identify strategies to promote students' mental wellbeing through appropriate unit design and teaching approaches.
Assessment
- Assessment Task 1: Case study - identifying issues and making referrals
- Assessment Task 2: Case study - self-care strategies
- Assessment Task 3: Reflection on learning
Module details
- Online mode of delivery
- Self-paced, allowing you to engage with the content at a time and pace that suits your schedule