Project milestone reached: MindGuard enters the Master Trainer phase

Our consortium has finalized the core material for our interactive training. With University of Nicosia (UNIC) as our Work Package 3 (WP3) leaders, the team has completed the development of two blended-learning training programs:

• The student course: A one-day program centered on Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) fundamentals, building peer-to-peer support strategies and equipping students with the righ tools to advocate against mental health stigma.
• The faculty & staff course: An in-depth two-day curriculum for university educators and administrators to help them recognize early signs of mental distress in academic settings, establish boundaries, and implement support strategies.
  

Both programs were co-designed with direct feedback from students, academics, and industry experts collected from our consultation and desk research phase. The project will now move to the next critical step, the Online Master Trainer Implementation.

Here is what this phase involves:

• A specialized group of 18 trainers, 3 per partner partner organizations, is attending an intensive online program.
• Every participating trainer brings a verified academic or professional background in psychology, mental health, or social work.
• These participants will receive certification and a cohort from those in our partner universities will step into delivering the programmes to students and faculty in their premises.

The MindGuard consortium will continue to update you as our Master Trainers complete their certification and we prepare to launch our local training pilots with 120 students and staff across our university settings. In the upcoming months, we will share updates from our VR platform internal testing phase, looking forward to giving you a fully equipped list of tools for your everyday practice.