A third of UK education staff and thousands of students have a mental-health issue, each year. An immediate, no-training-required response is now available to all.
British schools and colleges have first aid kits to treat cuts, sprains, burns or other injuries. But if a student or member of staff has a mental-health issue that needs immediate attention, help is much harder to come by.
New initiative Second Aid is set to change that. What first aid is for physical health, second aid is for mental health. Its QR code posters, placed next to traditional first-aid kits, provide free, instant access to structured exercises and support services to help people deal with panic attacks, burnout, conflict, stress and depression.
Developed by British social entrepreneur Hakeem Javaid, Second Aid is designed to combat the UK mental-health crisis by providing early intervention. One child in six is likely to have a mental-health problem. Thirty-four per cent of UK teachers and education staff had a mental-health issue over the 2024-25 academic year. Second Aid gives people immediate stability, potentially stopping distress or anxiety escalating or becoming long-term.
Users can self-administer psychological first aid – or help students to access it – based on established techniques from cognitive load regulation, CBT and other forms of therapy. This includes abdominal breathing, emotional regulation and visualisation exercises. They can also connect directly to the Samaritans for further support. Hakeem – creator of stress-reduction app HelpMeCalmDown.com, which has been used by more than 83,000 people worldwide – has added features to combat loneliness and grief, too.
“I want to see Second Aid in every school in the country,” he says. “It can normalise mental- health assistance, just as first aid is normal for physical health or soap in a bathroom is for hygiene”.
“Work-related stress, depression or anxiety account for some 2.5 million days lost to ill health in the education sector a year. A lack of early mental-health care can lead to family breakdowns, low school attendance, career disruption, poor exam performance and even suicide. This is how we fight it.”
Hakeem is encouraging education staff to ask their senior leaders to put up Second Aid QR codes posters in their school, college and staffrooms. They are downloadable, along with stickers, from the website. Use is free for public services, nonprofits, local businesses, religious communities and the general public, with for-profit companies requiring a license, starting at £225 a year.
Hakeem has also launched a petition urging government to mandate the use of Second Aid in all public buildings, schools and workplaces.
Second Aid is anonymous, with no accounts, cookies or advertising. It was designed with the help of mental-health experts, but is not intended for diagnosis, treatment of severe mental illness, to replace professional help, or management of imminent risk.
For more information, visit secondaid.com.
