Increasing teacher candidates’ mental health literacy and stress coping skills through an elective mental health and wellness course

Abstract

An upper-year elective undergraduate course on mental health and wellness is explored as a method of increasing concurrent teacher education students’ mental health literacy and strategies for coping with stress. This paper describes the experiences of seven concurrent education undergraduate students in the semester-long mental health and wellness course. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews conducted at the end of the course with each participant. Participants identified sharing and personal reflection as critical elements of the course which helped them acquire a deeper understanding of mental health and wellness and strategies for coping with stressful situations. Participants also discussed their future roles in promoting and sustaining mental health and wellness in themselves, their students and their colleagues. The findings are discussed in terms of increasing teacher candidates’ mental health literacy.