ES'COOL - Promotion of Mental health in Schools

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One in every 5 children and adolescents presents evidence of mental health problems (National Mental Health Plan, 2008). The symptoms of depression and anxiety are common among young people and impact negatively all areas of life (Topper, Emmelkamp, & Ehring, 2010).

Despite every efforts and progress in the area of mental health, Portugal still has to address several unmet needs. Special attention should be drawn to: reduced participation of users and family members; scarce scientific production in the field of psychiatry and mental health; limited response to the needs of vulnerable groups such as children and young people; the almost total absence of promotion and prevention programs (National Plan for Mental Health, 2008).

By implementing a program focusing education and training of school teachers, school staff and parents, capacity can be built for early identification of mental health problems in adolescents and to promote mental health in schools. This will fill in significant research to practice gap in the area of mental health practices and interventions in schools, which is a top priority of the current Mental Health Plan 2007-2016 (2008).
 

 

ES’COOL goals

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The main goal of “ES´COOL” is to promote adolescents’ mental health through capacity building of school teachers and school staff. The program aims the development of personal and social skills and includes the prevention of anxiety and depression symptoms and the promotion of the well-being, resilience, and self-regulation in adolescents. This training will allow early detection of problems that affect adolescents’ mental health and early intervention, improving care effectiveness. Finally, will promote dialogue with parents and other educators about these issues and develop a school environment health promoter and mental health among young people.

Therefore, this project lies on a theoretical MODEL to address mental health promotion in children and adolescents, where there is a major need to include teachers as collaborators. The model considers the development of adolescents assets as the best way to promote their health, considers the importance of their ecological life context and consider adolescents as partners in this process.