Contents

Resources

School-based Mental Health Promotion

Many positive youth development and mental health promotion programs are implemented in a school context. These programs are designed to support the development of specific skills in youth while also strengthening the overall social environment of the school to increase opportunities for belonging, acceptance and support.

Whole school approaches recognize that the total school environment (i.e. curriculum, policies, relationships, school culture, values, leadership) strongly influences overall student health and well being, including mental well-being. Whole school approaches typically include one or more of the following features:

  • Based on a holistic view of health.
  • Emphasizes multiple approaches to promoting student health and well-being.
  • Addresses social and environmental determinants of health.
  • Involves multiple partners and players.

Schools are a natural site for students to learn important social, emotional and relational skills. Eight core skills that enable students to live healthy, productive and meaningful lives have been identified by the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL):30

  1. Communicate effectively
  2. Ability to work cooperatively with others
  3. Emotional self-control and self-expression
  4. Empathy and perspective-taking
  5. Optimism, humour, and self-awareness
  6. Ability to plan and set goals
  7. Solving problems and resolving conflicts thoughtfully and non-violently
  8. Bringing a reflective, learning-to-learn approach to all domains of life

Research suggests that these social and emotional skills can be taught to students through systematic approaches that include the following elements:31

  1. Identify the skill and provide a clear rationale for its use
  2. Model and teach the specific skill
  3. Provide opportunities for students to practice the skill and receive feedback
  4. Establish prompts and cues on how to apply the skill outside the learning context

Implementation Ideas and Tools

MindMatters is an Australian program that uses a whole school approach to mental health promotion and suicide prevention. The program aims to enhance the development of school environments where young people feel safe, valued, engaged and purposeful. Social and emotional well-being have been linked to young people’s schooling outcomes, their social development, their capacity to contribute to the workforce and the community and to reducing the rate of youth suicide.

Oregon Resiliency Program, Strong Teens Curriculum is a curriculum developed to promote emotional resiliency with adolescents in grades 9-12. The Strong Teens curriculum is aimed specifically at concerns and content relevant to adolescents, or high school aged students. The Strong Teens lessons are designed to be easy to implement in school settings. There are 12 brief lessons that are designed to be taught once a week for 12 consecutive weeks. The lessons are designed to take 45 to 50 minutes each. These lessons are carefully designed and scripted for ease of implementation. The curricula were developed using evidence-based concepts, instructional strategies, and activities.

Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning is a collaborative that works to advance the science and evidence-based practice of social and emotional learning (SEL). The material on their website emphasizes the benefits of preschool through high school SEL programming; how SEL coordinates with other educational movements; research and training in implementation; assessment; school and district leadership development; educational policies; and communications.

For a list of additional resources relevant to school based mental health promotion, click here.