What does INTERCAMHS mean by "Promoting Mental Health through Schools"?
Promoting mental health through schools supports a whole school approach involving effective mental health promotion, intervention and treatment. This approach is supported by policies, skills for social emotional learning, a healthy psycho-social school environment and access to services in the school or in the broader community. The full participation of teachers, students, families and community agencies is encouraged with informed dialogue and collaboration among people and programmes throughout all phases of the continuum. This action is supported by principles that value diversity and inclusiveness, and practice that creates conditions for empowerment and school organizational development. It emphasizes the critical role of evidence to guide training, policy, research and practice across four areas:
- Universal mental health promotion, which seeks to improve school psychosocial environments, skills-based health education for social, emotional learning and brings resources and programs to all students to
promote health, successful teaching and learning and academic success;
- Selective interventions, which provide prevention programs for young people presenting risk factors for problems;
- Indicated interventions, which provide early interventions to young people exhibiting emotional and behavioural problems; and
- Treatment, which provides more intensive services to youth presenting established emotional/behavioural problems.
If you have comments or feedback on this working definition of mental health promotion through schools, Intercamhs would love to hear from you. You may participate in a webboard discussion at: http://boards.edc.org:8080/~intercamhs-public.
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