Our Amber Flag Initiative “Positive Mental Health is Positive Mental Wealth”. Throughout the course of Transition Year, the students of TYA have made it their mission to obtain the Amber Flag for our school, St. Mary’s Secondary School, Edenderry. With the slogan of “Positive Mental Health is Positive Mental Wealth”, we have set out three main goals for ourselves. We believe that these goals will help to promote positive mental health in our school for all year groups. The Amber Flag is an ideal to strive towards, an initiative that aims to promote positive mental health in Irish Secondary Schools. If we can earn the Amber Flag for our school, we will have completed our goal of successfully promoting positive mental health in our school, helping to remove the stigma surrounding discussing one’s feelings. In order to promote this idea, we established three main goals for ourselves. The first goal was to organise a Mental Health Awareness Day. This event has already taken place. We hosted a bake sale to raise funds for Jigsaw Offaly, we invited in guest speakers from Jigsaw Offaly & Reach Out to speak to the different year groups, and we launched our poster competition while discussing the Amber Flag with different classes throughout the school. We also went to various year groups and talked to them about Mental Health and simple things they can do to promote their own Positive Mental Health. The second goal we are working towards is a Poster Campaign. We are hosting a competition for all students in our school. To enter, students must create a poster with the theme of Positive Mental Health. We will use some of the money we have previously raised during the year to buy prizes for the winners. We hope this competition will raise awareness of Positive Mental Health. We will hang all the posters around the school to promote our project. The third goal will happen in March. The goal is to set up a Positive Mental Health Garden in our school to promote Positive Mental Health and wellbeing. We will work together as a class and with teachers who enjoy gardening to create this garden in the heart of our school. The aim is that any student who feels down can go into this garden and walk around and clear their mind. Here is a list of everyday things can you do to promote your own positive mental health:
Eat a balanced diet and drink plenty of water.
Get a good night’s sleep, at least 7 hours of sleep each night.
Talk it out with family members, friends or teachers. As they say a problem shared is a problem halved.
Take time out to spend alone to relax and have some “me time”.