Mental Health Matters (MHM) is a program of the Mental Wellness Center (MWC). Originally created in 2000, it is designed to introduce basic facts about mental health to elementary, middle and high school students. The MHM course addresses three foci: (1) signs and symptoms of major mental health disorders, (2) stigma and how it affects our perceptions of mental illness and (3) wellness activities and practices. The underlying premise of MHM is that with understanding, youth will know to seek help should they or someone they know experience symptoms of a possible mental health disorder, knowing that early treatment tends to lead to better outcomes. There is evidence of a recognized need for mental health education that is grounded in the increase in requests and the ongoing success of the MHM curriculum.

Our work is now well established in the Buellton, Carpinteria, Cold Spring, Hope, Goleta Union and Santa Barbara Unified School Districts.

BRIEF HISTORY OF MHM...

• In 2000, the Mental Wellness Center in collaboration with the Goleta Union School District developed a curriculum called the School Mental Illness Learning Experience (SMILE).
• In 2008, the curriculum was updated and rebranded MHM. The revised curriculum was piloted in a 6th-grade classroom at El Camino Elementary in the Goleta Union School District.
• In 2017-18, the MHM curriculum was taught in forty-eight 6th-grade classrooms, educating more than 1,200 6th graders!
• Based on an efficacy study, conducted in eight 7th grade science classrooms, the MHM curriculum was revised and updated during the summer of 2014 to also include mental wellness, and such issues as empathy, stigma and person-first language.