Well-Being: promoting mental health in schools

• Funding of research for the development ofa regional evidence-based mental healthstrategy for the North West region; and• Grant aid for a global review of theeffectiveness of mental promotion by theInternational Union for Health Promotion andEducation (IUHPE).Examples of mental healthpromotion in Irish schoolsThis section looks at the existence of mentalhealth promotion programmes in Ireland, takingplace within the school system. It should benotes that the programmes in this section are inaddition to other supports which are common tomost schools, such as: guidance counsellors,SPHE, and the National EducationalPsychological Service (NEPS).Zippy‟s Friends is based around a set of sixillustrated stories about a group of children, theirfamilies, friends and an imaginary stick insectcalled Zippy. It usually runs for 24 weeks, withone 45-minute session each week.Theprogramme has been implemented in over 16countries. A recent evaluation by Clarke andBarry (2010) found that the programme wasadapted to Irish schools without any problemsand integrated well within the SPHE curriculum.In addition the programme had positive effectson children‟s emotional literacy, and improvedteachers‟ relationships with children. 64Teachers made a number of recommendationsas to how Zippy‟s Friends could be improved.The most common recommendation was that awhole-school approach should be taken.Teachers reported that the biggest difficulty theyencountered in implementing the programmewas finding the time to do it.Jigsaw Meath project (age 12-15 years)The Jigsaw Meath project is a whole-schoolapproach to mental health which is being pilotedin Navan: (Beaufort College in Navan, St.Oliver‟s Post Primary in Oldcastle, St Peter‟sCollege Donboyne and Athboy communityCollege) and one Youthreach centre in Laytown.The Jigsaw Meath project is part of a nationalnetwork of Jigsaw projects and is aimed atyoung people. The programme is an initiative ofthe non-profit group Headstrong and works inpartnership with communities. A maincomponent of the Jigsaw process is gettingyoung people involved in their communities. 63Zippy’s Friends (age 5-9 years)In 2007 a joint partnership was set up betweenthe HSE and the Department of Education andScience to implement Zippy‟s Friends. It wasplanned to pilot the programme as part of theSocial, Personal and Health Education (SPHE)curriculum with children in first class. The pilottook place in 30 designated disadvantaged(DEIS) schools in the west of Ireland. The 24week programme took place over two schoolyears.MindOutMindOut is a programme developed by HealthPromotion HSE West and NUI Galway whichtakes place in secondary schools.The programme was developed in consultationwith students, teachers, and health promotionpractitioners. MindOut is a twelve sessionmental health programme. The MindOut projectis aimed at 15 to 18 year olds in the Irish schoolsetting. The project includes schools from bothIreland and Northern Ireland.The aims of the programme materials that havebeen developed are to:• identify a range of coping strategiesavailable to young people in stressfulsituations;• identify rational thinking skills for use incontrolling negative emotions;• raise awareness of feelings and how to dealwith them positively;63 http://www.jigsaw.ie/page/promoting-mental-health64 Clarke, A.M. and Barry, M. (2010). An evaluation ofthe Zippy‟s Friends emotional wellbeing programmefor primary schools in Ireland.14