Teachers at every school in the country to receive special training in mental health issues

Teachers at every school in the country will be given special training to recognise mental health issues in children, as part of a new Government initiative.

The move follows Prince Harry’s disclosures in The Daily Telegraph that he had sought counselling to help come to terms with the death of his mother.

Prime Minister Theresa May hailed his intervention and said it would help "smash the stigma" surrounding mental health and make thousands of people realise that they are "not alone".

Now teachers and other school staff will receive practical advice on how to recognise issues including depression and anxiety, self-harm, and eating disorders.

Over the next three years some 3,000 staff, covering every secondary school in England, will be given special training to deal with pupils' mental health problems which will make a "real difference to children's lives", Mrs May said on Tuesday. 

The programme is delivered by social enterprise Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England, backed by £200,000 in Government funding and will be extended to primary schools by 2022.

Prince Harry was praised for his bravery after revealing in an interview with The Telegraph that he has had therapy to help come to terms with his mother’s death, adding that there has for too long been a “taboo” about speaking about such important issues.

Caroline Hounsell, the lead for the Youth MFHA in Schools programme who has been working with Government officials to develop the initiative, said that Prince Harry opening up about his mental health was "absolutely intrinsic" to re-igniting public debate on the topic.  

"If Price Harry struggles, then people think ‘It’s ok if I can’t cope’. I think it’s really helpful – it sends a really clear message,” she said.

“It did loads for men’s mental health. Here is a guy who served in the armed forces, and comes from a very elite environment – it shows that if it can happen to him it can happen to anyone”.

She said that in the past year, thanks to Prince Harry and other high profile figures speaking opening about mental health, interest in the topic has “sky rocketed”.

The Prince disclosed in his interview with The Daily Telegraph that he had endured two years of "total chaos" while struggling in his late twenties to come to terms with losing his mother Diana, Princess of Wales. 

He said that the Duke had tried to help him, saying: "This is not right, this is not normal, you need to talk about stuff, it's OK." The Prince and his brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have together driven Heads Together, a charity which promotes good mental well-being.

Dickie Arbiter, the Queen's former press secretary, said that Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge "have done for mental health what Diana, Princess of Wales, did for HIV Aids - create awareness and remove stigma".