Well-Being: promoting mental health in schools

approach to mental health promotion, as shownin figure 4. The base of the diagram representsthe environment of the school itself and includeseveryone belonging and associated with theinstitution. The next tier represents mentalhealth education and is targeted at students andteachers. The third tier will only involve studentswith mental health needs and involvesinterventions such as counselling, angermanagement, peer mediation etc. The fourth tierinvolves a very small percentage of studentswho require professional treatment.Figure 4: The World Health organisation’sfour-level , whole-school approach to schoolchangeScientific evaluation ofprogrammesThere have been several scientific reviews ofprograms which target school-going children‟ssocial, emotional, behavioural and cognitiveskills. These are summarized by Clarke andBarry (2010) 33 who find that mental healthpromotion in schools has the following benefits:• Improvements in behavior and self-control;• Improved social and emotional skills;• Increased ability to learn and achieveacademically; and• Improved problem-solving in social settings.The European Union Dataprev project reviewedschool-based mental health programmes andincluded reviews of 52 interventions. 34 Theseinterventions were found to have beneficialeffects on children, families and communities, aswell as on mental health, social, emotional andeducational outcomes. Weare and Nind (2011)write that these effects are statistically small butlarge in terms of real-world impacts. Most ofthese reviews (46 of 52) were of universalprogrammes. 35In terms of specific groups, one study found thatsome school-based programmes for children ofdivorced parents resulted in improved copingskills, reduced depressive symptoms and fewerbehaviour problems at one-year follow-up. 36For a larger version of the above diagramplease click here.The first step in implementing the whole-schoolapproach is to form a core group of committedschool staff. When this is done, programmeorganisers contact community and familypartners. 3232 Education Development Center. (2011). Realizingthe promise of the whole-school approach tochildren‟s mental health: a practical guide forschools.Clarke and Barry (2010) write that withoutintervention, emotional and behaviouralproblems in young people may be lessamenable to intervention after eight years ofage, resulting in an escalation of academic33 Clarke, A.M. and Barry, M. (2010). An evaluation ofthe Zippy‟s Friends emotional wellbeing programmefor primary schools in Ireland.34 Weare, K. and Nind, M. (2011). Mental healthpromotion and problem prevention in schools: whatdoes the evidence say? Health PromotionInternational, Vol. 26.35 Ibid.36 Shekhar, S., Jané-Llopis, E., Hosman, C. (2006).Prevention of mental and behavioural disorders:implications for policy and practice. World Psychiatry5:1, February 20068