Developing multi-professional Higher Education for promoting mental health and well-being at schools Erasmus Project

Project Title

Developing multi-professional Higher Education for promoting mental health and well-being at schools

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Open and distance learning; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

Well@School will build new knowledge and practices for HEI education to ensure competences for future primary school teachers, school nurses and social workers to promote mental health and use of digital methods in school communities. The challenges faced by school professionals relate highly with the mismatch between their knowledge and the needs of mental health promotion and use of digital teaching and learning methods in mental health promotion. New competences are needed to reach diverse groups of children and support them to develop resilience and cope with a wide range of issues challenging their mental health. Despite the availability of school programs for mental health promotion, the prevalence of children suffering from mental health problems is high and psychiatric disorders are the leading cause of disability in young people worldwide. In addition, traditional health promotion methods seem to be ineffective, especially when compared to digital tools which reach a larger pool of children. School professionals need up-to-date, adequate understanding of the present mental health promotion needs and skills to use modern, digital methods.

Well@School aims to develop a new higher education open access platform that includes a framework, online course and a handbook for promoting mental health in primary schools, using digital methods. The project will promote key competences related to mental health promotion as well as build up digital competences in communication, co-creation, teaching and learning of professionals working in schools (teachers, school nurses, social workers). Moreover, the co-creation and validation process in the project will be implemented using several digital tools to support international collaboration and ensure transferability of the developed material across Europe.

There are three main objectives that lead to achieving the main results of the project. The first objective ise to develop a Well@School framework that includes the best available knowledge and practices in promoting mental health in primary schools, with a particular focus on digital methods. The second objective is to create an online course for working life professionals including knowledge and methods to promote mental health in primary schools, especially using digital methods. The third objective is to create a platform including the developed framework, online course and a handbook for working life professionals in schools. This platform will be an Open Education Resource, freely available for all interested stakeholders. The results of the project are: The Well@School framework, online course and platform (includes the framework, online course and handbook).

The project will make all necessary efforts to secure its quality, with an international Steering Group with academics from each partner organization, appointed by universities’ authorities, playing a key role. Five European HEI from Finland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovenia and Bulgaria, together with Associated (teachers, school nurses, social workers) will take part in the project, providing feedback as end-users of the project. All participating partners (Vilnius University, University of West Attica, University of Novo Mesto Faculty of health Sciences, Medical University-Plovdiv) are responsible for different activities, being coordinated by the Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland. We will evaluate the project to asses and understand if and how the participants in the online course and international multi-professional groups improve their readiness and level of knowledge regarding school health promotion, the use of digital tools and ability to work in a multidisciplinary way. The teaching material, and the knowledge gained by its production, will improve the quality and relevance of higher education and help attune educators and curricula to current and emerging labour market needs. The participants involved will have the opportunity to develop key competences in mental health and well-being promotion, multi-professional work and the use of digital tools, which will help them in their personal development, employability, future career and life in general.

The findings of the study will be published in academic and professional journals and in presentations at conferences. These publications will help other educators worldwide to assess the feasibility of adapting and adopting the project’s teaching and learning material, assuring the impact and transferability of Well@School. Additionally, the project will organise several seminars, with the aim of increasing even further the project’s transferability.

With Well@School we will provide post-graduate higher education institutions a tool to implement mental health and well-being promotion course in a multi-professional way and using digital tools, preparing the professionals of tomorrow, and ultimately leading to better mental health and increased digital knowledge in European schools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 304630 Eur

Project Coordinator

TURUN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY & Country: FI

Project Partners

• MEDITCINSKY UNIVERSITET-PLOVDIV
• Univerza v Novem mestu Fakulteta za zdravstvene vede
• PANEPISTIMIO DYTIKIS ATTIKIS
• VILNIAUS UNIVERSITETAS