FAQ - Let's Be Real

Question 1

What is Let's Be Real?

Accepted Answer

Let's Be Real is a mental health literacy initiative for schools and families across Europe. Founded by Jacqueline Klemke and Nick Praulins, it provides English-language programmes that equip young people, parents, and educators with practical tools to navigate stress, identity challenges, and the pressures of growing up in a phone-first world.

Question 2

Who is Let's Be Real for?

Accepted Answer

Let's Be Real works with international and English-language schools, educators, parents, and young people across Germany and Europe. Programmes are designed for children and teenagers, the adults who support them, and school communities looking to build a shared language around mental health.

Question 3

Where is Let's Be Real based, and where do you work?

Accepted Answer

Let's Be Real is based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It primarily serves international and English-language schools, families, and organisations across Germany and Europe. Programmes are available both in person and online, making them accessible to communities across the continent.

Question 4

Why English-language programmes?

Accepted Answer

Many international school communities and expatriate families in Europe operate primarily in English but struggle to find high-quality mental health education delivered in English. Let's Be Real fills that gap, ensuring that language is never a barrier to accessing support.

Question 5

How is Let's Be Real different from a counselling or therapy service?

Accepted Answer

Let's Be Real is an education initiative, not a clinical service. It does not provide therapy or psychological treatment. Its programmes build understanding, vocabulary, and resilience across whole communities: students, teachers, and parents together. Where a young person needs clinical support, Let's Be Real helps the adults around them recognise that need and respond appropriately.

Question 6

What programmes and services does Let's Be Real offer?

Accepted Answer

Let's Be Real offers four core services: a structured mental health literacy programme for students, focused on resilience, belonging and self-understanding; certified Mental Health First Aid training for parents and educators; wellbeing and resilience workshops tailored for children, teenagers and adults; and parent education sessions on mental health awareness and practical support strategies. Programmes are available both in-person and online.

Question 7

What is a mental health literacy programme?

Accepted Answer

A mental health literacy programme teaches people to recognise, understand, and respond to mental health challenges. Let's Be Real's programme goes beyond awareness: it builds resilience, fosters a sense of belonging, and helps young people understand themselves more honestly. It is designed to work across the whole school community, not just with students.

Question 8

Is First Aid for Mental Health training certified?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Let's Be Real delivers certified First Aid for Mental Health training for parents and educators. The training equips adults to identify early warning signs, provide initial support, and connect young people with appropriate help.

Question 9

What age groups are the student modules designed for?

Accepted Answer

The six literacy modules are written to be delivered across primary and secondary years, with the language, examples and depth adapted to the age group in front of us. We agree the pitch with your pastoral team before delivery so the content lands with your students rather than sitting above or below them.

Question 10

How much time does a programme take?

Accepted Answer

The literacy modules are designed to sit inside existing tutor, PSHE or wellbeing time rather than compete with the timetable. First Aid for Mental Health courses run to their awarding body's required hours, typically a half day to two days depending on the level. We scope exact timings with each school.

Question 11

Can programmes be adapted to our school's existing wellbeing curriculum?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The core content and the qualified trainers stay fixed; format, sequencing, timing and audience are yours to shape. Most schools weave the modules into what they already run rather than bolting on something separate.

Question 12

Do you work with parents as well as staff?

Accepted Answer

Always. Mental health literacy only holds when students, educators and parents share the same language, which is why parent sessions and adult training sit alongside the student modules rather than as an optional extra.

Question 13

Why does mental health literacy matter for young people right now?

Accepted Answer

Rates of anxiety, depression, and social disconnection among children and teenagers have risen sharply. Pressures from social media, identity questions, and a broader sense of disconnection leave many young people without the tools to cope. Mental health literacy gives them a language for their experiences and practical strategies to respond. It also prepares the adults around them to provide meaningful support rather than reactive concern.

Question 14

Is there evidence that this kind of programme works?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A 2025 meta-analysis in JAMA Network Open pooled 97 randomised trials with 43,852 young people and found school-based mental health literacy and anti-stigma programmes improved knowledge, attitudes and help-seeking intentions. Our Evidence section sets out the studies and their limitations in full.

Question 15

What does a first conversation look like?

Accepted Answer

A short call to understand your community: size, age range, what you already run, and where the gaps sit. We then propose a shape and cost. There is no obligation and no template pitch.

Question 16

How do I get in touch or bring Let's Be Real to my school?

Accepted Answer

You can contact Let's Be Real directly through the website contact form or by email. The team works with schools and organisations to scope programmes that fit their specific community, size, and needs.

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