Suicide is the most common cause of death among young people, according to Nellie Fors Vilminko at the Rescue Service. In Västernorrland, several municipalities offer YAM lessons to improve the mental health of school pupils.
Nellie works to prevent suicide
Nellie Fors Vilminko, who works with suicide prevention at the Rescue Service in Kramfors, thinks it's fantastic that YAM is offered.
"Mental health education is not part of the curriculum in Swedish schools. On the other hand, there are mental health lessons called YAM," she says.
How do you talk about feelings with children?
"Instead of asking closed-ended questions, such as 'did you do well in school today?', instead ask open-ended questions such as 'how did you do in school?' so you can start a discussion," she says.
More tips from Nellie can be found here.
The municipalities that do not have YAM lessons in the county are Sundsvall and Timrå. Sundsvall municipality states that their priority right now is school attendance and work against abusive treatment.
SVT Västernorrland has tried to contact Timrå municipality without success.