UC team identifies key challenges and opportunities for promoting mental health in schools
The guidelines were produced as part of 'Let's Talk About Children,' a project aimed at promoting the mental health of children from vulnerable family backgrounds.
The team of the 'Let's Talk About Children' project, coordinated in Portugal by the University of Coimbra (UC), has just published a document that identifies the main challenges and opportunities for promoting mental health within the school community.
They identified five challenges to promoting mental health in the school community: 1) difficulties in responding to the growing need for support for children and young people with mental health problems; 2) communication difficulties between schools and families; 3) communication difficulties between schools and health services; 4) deficits in the training of teachers and educators regarding mental health issues; and 5) difficulties in the integrated implementation of social, educational, and health policies.
Improvement opportunities have also been pinpointed to establish a more integrated approach to working with families for the well-being of children in the future. These include interventions for the primary and secondary prevention of mental health problems in the school population, promoting regular collaboration between teachers and mental health professionals, and training teachers and educators to recognise and support children and young people with mental health problems.
Promoting mental health among children and young people is a priority at the international level, particularly for the World Health Organization and the European Union, which recommend specific interventions in the field of mental health in youth and education to member states.
The 'Let's Talk About Children' project aims to promote the mental health of children and adolescents from vulnerable backgrounds, such as families with a history of mental illness, economic deprivation or social integration problems. It has been implemented in Portugal and 8 other European countries since 2023 as part of the EU4Health programme, funded by the European Commission, and coordinated in Portugal by the UC Faculty of Medicine (FMUC).
The guidelines now published results from consultations with organisations that support families in vulnerable situations, such as schools, local authorities, health services, and several institutions.