On Wednesday 24 November (4 pm to 6:30 pm), the university of Milan-Bicocca presents in an online conference the national results of Promehs, Promoting Mental Health at School, a European project which provided school staff in different European countries with training on the promotion of mental health at school.

Mental health is defined as a wellbeing condition in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, overcomes everyday life tensions, works productively and fruitfully, and contributes to the life of his/her community (WHO, 2014). Increasingly often problems are experienced in children: depression, for example, is identified as the first mental health problem among teenagers, and suicide is the third cause of death in that same age group. Moreover, about 20% of children show mental distress (WHO, 2015).

Timely interventions to be implemented in the crucial years of cognitive, emotional and behavioural development are therefore necessary. The school can be the ideal place to work with children starting from 5-6 years of age, to improve their social and emotional wellbeing, their attitude towards themselves and the others, decrease behavioural and aggressiveness problems, emotional suffering and anxiety.

One of the aims of the Promehs project is to develop a curriculum (adaptable to different development stages) for the promotion of mental health at school, that is, a set of activities useful to strengthen personal and interpersonal skills of students, their self-awareness their social awareness and their ability to take responsible decisions, consequently reducing risky behaviors.

The project, funded under key action 3 of the Erasmus+ Programme, was carried out together with a network of partners made up of universities, schools associations and thematic networks in Italy, Croatia, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal and Romania, with the aim to train teachers, share best practices and create an in increasingly strong collaboration with institutions to make mental health a political and educational national priority.

The online event on Wednesday 24, open to all interested parties, intends to reflect on these issues and open a dialogue with school leaders, teachers, parents and students who participated in the experimentation.

Programme:

Greetings and introduction to the conference
Ilaria Grazzani, professor at the University of Milan-Bicocca

Evidences of the effectiveness of the Promehs curriculum in Italy
Valeria Cavioni, professor at the University of Milan-Bicocca

The school as a pedagogical setting to generate well-being and learning
Patrizia Garista, Indire researcher

The voice of the participants
Testimonies from school leaders, teachers, parents and students

The webinar is free and open to all. It is sufficient to register by November 22 at the following link: https://bit.ly/2Ydp1j3

The initiative is organized by the Laboratory of Developmental and Educational Psychology of the University of Milan-Bicocca.

For information: promehs.italy@gmail.com

Conference poster >>