Evaluation of “Bell Let’s Talk in the Classroom”: A Guide for Improving Teachers’ Confidence in Providing Mental Health Education

Abstract

The Let’s Talk in the Classroom (LTIC) Guide was designed to provide teachers with the education and support required to feel confident delivering mental health-related material in the Grade 7/8 classroom. The overall goal of this preliminary evaluation was to explore the acceptability, feasibility, and utility of the Guide using a mixed methods approach. A matched, pre/post-test evaluation of the Guide was conducted during the 2017/2018 school year among a sample of educators in Ontario, Canada (n = 42). Quantitatively and qualitatively, results demonstrated that teachers felt more confident and expressed fewer worries associated with teaching mental health-related lessons after engaging with the Guide and were suggestive of acceptability and utility, with continued challenges associated with feasibility identified.