Mental health at school: the European Project Well-School-Tech

Prevention and health promotion

Published 13/11/2019 - Edited 29/12/2021

Many scientific studies have shown the importance of prevention and health promotion to reduce the incidence of diseases and mortality and consequently the costs to the National Health Service (NHS) and society and to promote the maintenance of well-being and quality of life.

Diseases such as type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer and dementia can be partially prevented. Nearly 80% of heart disease and strokes can be avoidable if people are willing to change their lifestyle. In a modern concept of health, its promotion and prevention must focus on joint actions in different sectors of society, mainly on modifiable behavioural risk factors and social, economic and environmental health determinants, to mention the importance of early diagnosis, the crucial role of vaccinations and the fight against inequalities.

In this area, in accordance with the policies promoted by international agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), adopted by national regulations, the strategic activities of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, the National Institute of Health in Italy) are inspired by the fundamental principles of capacity building of strengthening people's skills to make responsible choices for their own well-being. In this vision, prevention and health promotion encompass all stages of life and consider health no longer the responsibility of NHS alone.

To this end, the ISS collects data and carries out research on lifestyles and behaviours with potential effects on health, it studies and promotes models of intervention, supports Ministries and Regions in disease prevention and health promotion activities, and collaborates with other national and international institutions.

Back Mental health at school: the European Project Well-School-Tech

Published 01/12/2016 - Edited 17/02/2021

Adolescence and pre-adolescence are crucial moments for the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders, taking into account that up 50% of common mental disorders have their onset in adolescence, around 14 years of age.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that, worldwide, up to 20% of children and adolescents suffer from a problem of emotional development or behaviour and one out of eight suffer from a mental disorder.
The project aims to provide secondary school students the appropriate skills to monitor and manage their level of mental wellbeing, through the development of a pedagogical tool that will use as a basis the good practices and expertise in the field of mental wellbeing exchanged among the partnership. Partners will share knowledge concerning mental well being management in school as well as strategies to involve in the best way all the actors that play an important role in the mental wellbeing of students, i.e. teachers and family members.
Project objectives are: 1) to exchange good practices for mental wellbeing management in the school context, in order to collect methodologies aimed at the students’ wellbeing with the direct support of the actors involved in the wellbeing and learning process of students i.e. teachers and parents; 2) to provide students with tools to manage mental wellbeing, improve communication skills, increase self awareness and problem solving abilities; 3) to produce high quality resources for professionals and improve their competencies to deal with diversified groups of students, making use of new technologies and learner-centred pedagogical approaches.

With the active participation of students, the pedagogical resources collected among the partnership will be adapted and transferred to multimedia tools (website, videos, apps), available in 5 European languages, in order to have an innovative and more attractive approach with the target group and cater their needs and expectations. The analysis carried out in the first phase of the project will help to identify the key needs of students while the exchange of good practices will facilitate a more efficient strategy to address target groups’ wellbeing needs. These results will provide a ground on which build the educational resources and adapt the programme. The training activities targeting teachers will help the first target group to better understand well-being needs of students, the best approaches to operate within school settings and guarantee the wellbeing of their learners, the use of ICTs in educational contexts. Teachers will deliver focus groups with students in order to identify the most appropriate communication methods for their age group and to develop multimedia material.

The pilot course together with the multimedia resources based on the manual will increase students’ psychological well-being and quality of life, thus fostering a healthy environment for teaching and learning.
The activities foreseen in the project will produce the following results: - improved learner-centered resources for wellbeing management in the school context; - improved competencies of teachers/educators in managing mental well-being in school settings by using different approaches and ICT-based methodologies, - increased ability of secondary school students to manage their mental wellbeing.

The Partnership

P1 - VIKO - Vilniaus Kolegija (LT)
P2 - PROMIMPRESA SRL (IT)
P3 - ISS - ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI SANITA’, Reparto Salute Mentale (IT)
P4 - Europa Training (UK)
P5 - ULO - University of Lodz (PL)
P6 - ECQ Ltd. - EUROPEAN CENTER FOR QUALITY OOD (BG)

Per info
Antonella Gigantesco, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Centro Nazionale di Epidemiologia, Sorveglianza e Promozione della Salute, Reparto Salute Mentale

Antonella Gigantesco