Mental health promotion in the upper level of comprehensive school from the viewpoint of school personnel and mental health workers

Abstract

Prevalence of mental health problems among adolescents varies from 10 to 30%. Therefore, mental health promotion in school has risen as a very important developing area in public health services. The need is international. Despite the large number of projects and recommendations on the promotion of schoolchildren's mental health, the literature does not offer a comprehensive theoretical description of what mental health work with people of this particular age really is as a whole. The theory can be constructed by combining and comparing the viewpoints of the different parties--the employees, the schoolchildren and their families--as well as previous knowledge of the subject. The purpose of this research was to produce a description of the concepts used by employees when addressing the subject of promoting mental health in the upper level of comprehensive schools (grades 7-9). The description has been produced by analysing interviews with nine people who work with schoolchildren, as well as workgroup memos related to the development work. The respondents work in the fields of primary healthcare, specialised healthcare, the education authority and social services. The analysis was conducted by applying the grounded theory method. The research target was a Finnish upper-level comprehensive school with 446 pupils. Four key concepts were found: The concept of a school environment comprises the physical and social conditions in the school, the curricula and other instructions. Human resources comprise representatives of various organisations, their competencies and time-consumption opportunities. The schoolchildren and their families and also their friends are key operators and partners. The concept of work to promote mental health is related to enhancing the school's conditions, recognising problems and offering help, co-operation and joint agreement. The produced description clarifies the overall picture of mental health work in schools and facilitates the finding of key development areas.