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our minds matter

  • Complete the Be There Certificate to gain skills in how to support a friend or loved one who is struggling with their mental health
  • Develop an understanding of how to protect mental health and boundaries
  • Feel inspired to share the Be There Certificate with peers and encourage others to get certified

  • Prior to the meeting, explain to all students involved that they must first complete the Be There Certificate, which is a free, online, self-paced course that will take about two hours to complete
  • Provide everyone completing this activity/challenge with a “due date” of when they should complete the course 
  • Gather in-person or virtually after this due date to debrief and discuss the training in more detail (see discussion questions below)

Feel free to get creative with this discussion. You can ask folks to write down their answers, have small group discussions, or ask for volunteers to share out with the whole group. *If using technology, one fun way to start the conversation could be to ask folks for one word that explains how they felt after taking the training and put them all into a word cloud.*

  • Was there anything that surprised you about this training? If so, what was it?
  • Name three skills/pieces of information that you will take away from this.
  • The Certificate features folks of many different ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds. What are some ways that someone’s culture affects their mental health? What about the oppression they might face due to one or more of their identities?
  • Something that the Be There Certificate really emphasizes is how to protect yourself and your boundaries while being there for a loved one. What is one example of how you plan to do this moving forward?
  • The Be There Certificate is not a crisis-intervention training. What are some signs of immediate crisis that we should all be aware of?
    • Note for facilitator: See OMM’s guide for immediate warning signs of suicide here.
  • It’s really scary to ask a loved one if they are considering suicide, but it’s really important that we be direct in these situations. What are some examples of how we can do this?
    • Note for facilitator: It’s very important to ask directly if someone is considering suicide or thinking of killing themselves. Ex: “Are you thinking of suicide?” “Are you thinking of killing yourself?”
    • Asking someone if they are thinking of “hurting” themselves is NOT recommended as it is not the same question. See more info here.
    • Ask everyone to save the following numbers in their phones:
    • 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
    • 741741: Text “Mind” to reach the Crisis Text Line
  • How can we all work to spread the knowledge we gained from the Be There Certificate?
    • Note for facilitator: Feel free to share these ideas with your group in addition to what they share: Text three friends to take the training, share the link and your experience on Twitter or TikTok, and share a graphic from Jack.org and BTW on your club’s social media!

 

  • Consider making this a school-wide campaign by encouraging the entire student body to complete the course! You may want to collaborate with your school’s mental health team to decide how to best reach the entire student body. One way is to make this a friendly competition and have the different grades/classes compete to see who can get the highest level of completion. Download this graphic to promote the certificate!