YAMH - Supporting teachers and youth workers to promote and protect Youth Mental Health at School

Well-being and a positive mental health status are key aspects for every human, according to WHO. 50% of mental health problems in adulthood have their onset before or during adolescence. Exposure...

YAMH has applied the innovative life-skills approach (WHO): it addresses the need of building the needed competences for human development and adopting positive behaviours that will enable adolescents to deal effectively with the challenges of everyday life. Based on that, two main actions were covered: the Mental Health and Well-being promotion and protection. Through this project, the teachers and Youth Workers are able to protect and promote adolescents’ mental health, as they were trained to (i) identify and interpret key mental health issues and disorders’ early signs (mechanism of mental illness, prevalence, onset age, risk factors, treatability, and possibility of recovery) as well as the disorder’s early signs’ interpretation; (ii) combat the stigma on mental health disorders through the enhancing of help-seeking and, (iii) build up resilience at schools addressing the (a) social and interpersonal skills (communication, refusal skills, assertiveness, and empathy), (b) cognitive skills (decision making, critical thinking and self-evaluation) and (c) emotional coping skills (stress management, anger management and self-control).

Well-being and a positive mental health status are key aspects for every human, according to WHO. 50% of mental health problems in adulthood have their onset before or during adolescence. Exposure to adverse experiences and situations in childhood and adolescence can significantly affect mental well-being into the future, as, for example, the early leaving of the school system, the increase substance use or criminal behaviour in adolescence, which in turn increase the likelihood of exposure to other established risk factors in adulthood, such as unemployment, debt and social exclusion. The promotion and protection of Youth’s Mental Health is related to family and school. School shapes an adolescent, but it gives few chances to treat mental health, due to lack of available training for teachers and youth workers. These are the professionals with daily contact with the adolescents; but, they do not have the materials or tools to promote and protect youth’s or their own Mental Health. YAMH aimed to cover this gap; it equipped teachers and youth workers to promote and protect Youth Mental Health at school to tackle the aforementioned risks; also it supported the well-being and mental health at schools for both learners and educators.

YAMH produced the following outcomes during the project: Tangible outcomes: - A structured set of competencies based on EU standards and methods in Youth Mental Health promotion and protection at School through life-skills approach (PR1 Curriculum). - An ICT-based educative instrument to upskill school teachers and youth workers in Youth Mental Health promotion and protection, including an Online Digital Database, Theoretical and Pedagogical Basis and a Blended learning course (PR2 Online Platform) - A Policy set of recommendations to facilitate transferability and replicability of the project results in intermediaries and organizations working in the area (PR3 Guidelines and recommendations). - Developed, adapted, and tested innovative practices and digital technologies to train target users in Youth Mental Health promotion and protection by means of pilot activities. - A defined strategy for the Management and Quality assurance of the project with established protocols, tools and methodologies for monitoring and evaluation, budget and time control, agreements, and templates. - A Sharing, Promotion and Exploitation strategy with a correspondent set of tools and resources, involving partner organizations, stakeholders, and policy makers to share the project activities, mainstreaming the project results and enhance the exploitation of its results. Intangible outcomes: - For partner organisations: an improvement of their capacity to innovate and cooperate with other organizations at national and European levels, identifying common challenges and solutions and developing new pedagogical approaches. - For partner organizations’ staff: skills improvement related to implementation of EU funded programmes. - For school teachers and youth workers: extended and developed their skills on: (i) identifying and interpreting key mental health issues and disorder’s early signs; (ii) combating the stigma on mental health disorders and (iii) contributing to build up resilience at schools. - For school students: access to education and training opportunities tailor made to their needs in Mental Health and protection. - For the stakeholders: collaboration with the partner organizations and with other stakeholders and/or associated partners to establish a network and a community of practice in Youth Mental Health promotion and protection at local, regional, or European levels to share information, improve skills and actively work on advancing the general knowledge of the domain.