How to strengthen the resilience and mental well-being of adolescents in the school environment

Timely mental health care is especially important during early adolescence (ages 10 to 19), when personality is being formed and developed. Adolescents are a vulnerable group, as they often face numerous challenges. The results of national and international studies show that the mental health of young people is at risk. Numerous studies on the effectiveness of prevention programs indicate that the most successful and efficient programs are those implemented in schools, tailored to the needs of adolescents, that include educational activities, foster the development of young people's social skills, are carried out by school staff, and also strengthen the competencies of both parents and teachers. That is why we applied for a project through which we designed and implemented preventive activities for all of the above-mentioned target groups.

We wanted to improve the competencies of teachers, psychologists, principals, students and their parents to strengthen the resilience and mental well-being of adolescent students through teaching and extracurricular activities. We also wanted to achieve specific goals with the project: to provide support to educational staff for the prevention of adolescent mental health through short-term joint trainings, to design a manual for teachers and other educational staff for preventive work with students on the topic of mental health, to develop and pilot a peer support program and a parent support program for mental health support, and to promote project results through the organization of multipair events with the aim of their dissemination and sustainability of the project.

We realized 4 trainings in 4 partner countries. Each training session addressed a specific aspect important to mental health: sources of stress and coping techniques, the impact of social networks and digital devices on mental health, emotional literacy and EQ development, the impact of music on mental health. Through the joint work of our partners, we have designed a manual with preventive workshops on the topic of mental health within the mentioned topics. Then we designed and piloted the Parent Support Program and the Peer Support Program. We organized various internal and dissemination activities for stakeholders outside the consortium and organized 3 Multiplier Events where we presented the project and its results.

1. Digital educational materials from short-term training 2. Handbook for teachers and other educational staff for preventive work with students on the topic of mental health 3. Peer support program - for the preventive work of peer educators 4. Parent support program - for preventive work with parents on the topic of adolescent mental health 5. Piloting of both programs 6. eTwining project and its products 7. Accredited 2 panels by the Institute for Quality Improvement from Serbia, which were realized 3 times: Challenges of mental health of educational workers in private and professional environments and Recognition of mental difficulties in students - the role of teachers and professional associates 8. Presentation of the project as an example of good practice at the national eTwining conference Well-being in School, which was held in September 2024. 9. 3 Multiplier Events ( 2 in-person, 1 online)