Frontline talk: Teachers' linguistic resources when talking about mental health and illness

Talk about mental health and mental illness was examined using Potter and W etherell's system of discourse analysis. Participants were 8 health coordin ators (teachers)from a range of New Zealand secondary schools. They were in terviewed on the topics of mental health and mental illness. Verbatim trans cript from the interviews were analyzed, and three mental health and illnes s linguistic resources were identified: a mental health as illness resource , a mental well-being resource, and a mental illness resource. Each resourc e was examined, and the practical consequences of this language use was dis cussed in relation to the role of teachers as frontline mental health profe ssionals.