Mental Health Promotion Project Research Articles

Project SELfit: training socio-emotional skills in a school environment in Porto

Abstract Issue/Problem Mental disorders are the main cause of years lived with disability (YLD) in 5-14-year-old people around the world, in Western Europe, and particularly in Portugal. Young people who experience anxiety during childhood have a 3,5-fold likelihood of suffering from depression or anxiety during adulthood. COVID-19 has aggravated this situation, namely regarding socio-emotional competencies. Description of the problem SELfit, a project based on the Socio-emotional learning (SEL) methodology, aims promoting mental health, by training teachers and community nurses to develop socio-emotional skills in students from primary schools. The project includes a theoretical and a practical/training session, and monthly supervision sessions by a team that includes a psychologist, a public health doctor and public health nurses. The period of implementation is between February to July 2022. Results A total of 8 community nurses and 13 teachers from 3 primary schools in Porto enrolled in this project, which corresponds to a total around 272 students from 5 to 8-year-old. Knowledge of nurses and teachers regarding mental health literacy, and social emotional learning was assessed, before and after the theoretical session. The mean percentage of correct answers before was 49% (54% regarding nurses and 45% teachers) compared to 84% (92% regarding nurses and 78% teachers) after. Concerning socio-emotional skills of the primary school students, possible improvement will be evaluated at the end of the project (July 2022). Lessons Mental health literacy and social emotional learning knowledge increased 35%, which highlights the importance of these theoretical sessions promoting mental health literacy. By the end of this project, it is expected to exist an improvement on socio-emotional skills of the primary school students. This is a very important project, expected to be implement and replicated in other schools in Porto and in Portugal. Key messages • Mental disorders are the main cause of years lost due to disability (YLD) in primary school students in Portugal; hence, it was chosen for this mental health promotion project. • This is a pioneer project in Porto, involving both community nurses and primary teachers, in which all are involved in training and promoting social-emotional learning in a school context.

Digitization of healthcare post COVID-19: Reimagining the role of health education and promotion

The digitization of health promotion and communication has become a major discourse in healthcare. This paper synthesizes my understanding of the role of health literacy, promotion, education and communication in ensuring effective digitization of healthcare and presents four key findings from a mental health promotion project. First, the pandemic has shown us more than ever how fragile we all are – health-seeking behaviour will increasingly take centre stage over the next decade. Second, why do people refuse to wear masks even though it increases the risk of mortality? Why are individuals not motivated to exercise despite downloading free health apps? Why do people keep eating unhealthy food even when they can afford healthier options? Why? The numbers cannot tell the whole story. Similarly, the proliferation of digital health technology cannot convince people to modify their behaviours nor promote meaningful use of e/m-health apps. Third, deliberate digital health promotion and communication is needed to leverage opportunities in health technology. Fourth, the world needs researchers and experts who understand the broader determinants of health attitudes and are knowledgeable in synthesizing valid health information across various technological platforms, in support of health system needs. I address the implications of my findings and discuss future directions for policy and practitioners.

Service user involvement enhanced the research quality in a study using interpretative phenomenological analysis - the power of multiple perspectives.

The aim of this study was to examine how service user involvement can contribute to the development of interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology and enhance research quality. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is a qualitative methodology used in nursing research internationally to understand human experiences that are essential to the participants. Service user involvement is requested in nursing research. We share experiences from 4years of collaboration (2012-2015) on a mental health promotion project, which involved an advisory team. Five research advisors either with a diagnosis or related to a person with severe mental illness constituted the team. They collaborated with the research fellow throughout the entire research process and have co-authored this article. We examined the joint process of analysing the empirical data from interviews. Our analytical discussions were audiotaped, transcribed and subsequently interpreted following the guidelines for good qualitative analysis in interpretative phenomenological analysis studies. The advisory team became 'the researcher's helping hand'. Multiple perspectives influenced the qualitative analysis, which gave more insightful interpretations of nuances, complexity, richness or ambiguity in the interviewed participants' accounts. The outcome of the service user involvement was increased breadth and depth in findings. Service user involvement improved the research quality in a nursing research project on mental health promotion. The interpretative element of interpretative phenomenological analysis was enhanced by the emergence of multiple perspectives in the qualitative analysis of the empirical data. We argue that service user involvement and interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology can mutually reinforce each other and strengthen qualitative methodology.

Health Advocacy Project: Evaluating the Benefits of Service Learning to Nursing Students and Low Income Individuals Involved in a Community-Based Mental Health Promotion Project.

Poverty, along with other factors such as unemployment, work and life stressors, interpersonal violence, and lack of access to high quality health and/or social services all play a role in determining who develops a mental illness and for whom those symptoms persist or worsen. Senior nursing student preparing to enter the field and working in a service learning capacity may be able to influence early recovery and symptom abatement among those most vulnerable to mental illness. A consortium of community stakeholders and researchers collaboratively designed a 10-week mental health promotion project called the Health Advocacy Project (HAP). The project combines case management and system navigation support delivered by trained and highly supervised nursing students to individuals experiencing major depressive disorder (MDD) and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this article, we present the findings of a qualitative fidelity evaluation that examines the effectiveness of nursing students in delivering the health advocacy intervention at the level and with the intensity originally intended. The findings demonstrate how the services of senior nursing students may be optimized to benefit our healthcare system and populations most at risk for developing MDD and PTSD.

Development of students’ eHealth, mHealth and serious games expertise in health behavior change during health and social studies

Development of students’ eHealth, mHealth and serious games expertise in health behavior change during health and social studies

Assessing the evidence of mental health promotion criteria in a pre-registration mental health nursing programme

Purpose – This paper is about a single case study of a three-year BSc Mental Health Nursing degree programme based at a London University. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the extent to which the programme sufficiently addresses the ten quality criteria developed by the “PROMISE” (2009) Mental Health Promotion Project. PROMISE (2009) is a European public health project funded by the European Commission and was conducted from 2009 to 2012. Its aim was the European-wide development of criteria and training guidelines in mental health promotion and recommended these should be integrated into the professional training curricula of nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis method (Bryman, 2012) was used for this case study. This method allowed for a line-by-line scrutiny of the contents of the curriculum for evidence of the ten PROMISE quality criteria for mental health promotion (PROMISE project; http://promise-mental-health.com/training-guidelines.html). Findings – The findings revealed that the PROMISE (2009) project was not one of the four key documents stated as forming the basis for the design of the curriculum content. However, the study found evidence of the curriculum addressing the first PROMISE criterion of embracing the principles of mental health promotion in seven of the 14 modules (50 per cent) in the programme. In the first year of the programme five of the ten PROMISE quality criteria were embedded in two of the four modules. In year 2, quality criteria 1, 4 and 7 were addressed in the course content of four of the five modules (see Table I). In the final year of the programme PROMISE quality criteria 1, 2, 4 and 8 were embedded in the syllabus and assessment strategy in two out of the five final year modules. It was also found that quality criteria 2 and 9 were not included in any of the modules in the programme. Research limitations/implications – This is a case study based on the content analysis of a single curriculum document in a London University. It is therefore not possible to make wide generalisation of its findings across the countries involved in the EU Promise project. However, it could be argued that it is possible to find a number of the key findings present in other UK University programmes that may be similar in structure to that selected for this study. The other limitation to this content analysis is that the evaluation process did not include accounts of the students’ experience on the programme. This could have contributed significantly to the outcome of the evaluation exercise. Although the methodology used is simple, practical and relatively sound, it is not necessarily rigorous in terms of quantitative research methodology but arguably an acceptable contribution to the spectrum within qualitative research paradigm. Practical implications – The emergence of the “PROMISE” criteria especially on a European-wide basis puts emphasis on the importance of mental health promotion in the training of health care professionals. This is expected to be achieved by the training institutions in the European Union. In the UK, this notion is well embraced in various health policy documents (e.g. “No Health Without Mental Health” DH 2011). In the case of the programme examined at one London University, work is required to ensure that a pervasive incorporation of mental health promotion strategies in the curriculum in order to help the students to become better equipped to understand and effectively apply the mental health promotion criteria in their work upon qualification. Originality/value – This is one of the first papers to address the “PROMISE” project and the issue of incorporating mental health promotion criteria in a pre-registration mental health pathway training programme in a university in the UK.

The influence of unsupervised time on elementary school children at high risk for inattention and problem behaviors

In the last few decades, changing socioeconomic and family structures have increasingly left children alone without adult supervision. Carefully prepared and limited periods of unsupervised time are not harmful for children. However, long unsupervised periods have harmful effects, particularly for those children at high risk for inattention and problem behaviors. In this study, we examined the influence of unsupervised time on behavior problems by studying a sample of elementary school children at high risk for inattention and problem behaviors. The study analyzed data from the Children's Mental Health Promotion Project, which was conducted in collaboration with education, government, and mental health professionals. The child behavior checklist (CBCL) was administered to assess problem behaviors among first- and fourth-grade children. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of unsupervised time on children's behavior. A total of 3,270 elementary school children (1,340 first-graders and 1,930 fourth-graders) were available for this study; 1,876 of the 3,270 children (57.4%) reportedly spent a significant amount of time unsupervised during the day. Unsupervised time that exceeded more than 2h per day increased the risk of delinquency, aggressive behaviors, and somatic complaints, as well as externalizing and internalizing problems. Carefully planned afterschool programming and care should be provided to children at high risk for inattention and problem behaviors. Also, a more comprehensive approach is needed to identify the possible mechanisms by which unsupervised time aggravates behavior problems in children predisposed for these behaviors.

2946 – Suicide prevention and media in hungary

Background Internet and media can play an important role in suicide prevention. In Hungary the suicide rate is the second highest in the European Union. In spite of this fact, in Hungary the first guideline on media coverage of suicide was only published in March 2012. The Suicide Prevention by Internet and Media Based Mental Health Promotion (SUPREME) project aims to develop an Internet based suicide prevention intervention. In the first part of SUPREME project the goal was to obtain an overview of the already existing suicide prevention websites. The current presentation aims the show the Hungarian data. Methods The first thirty search hits was examined using the Google search engine between March 21–25, 2011 on the keyword “suicide” in Hungarian (“ongyilkossag”). Coding of the website was made according to the following categories: type of content, sender, form of communication, age group. Results Type of content was: direct preventive: 25% (n = 6), scientific: 30% (n = 9), news: 23.33%, (n = 7), pro-suicide: 0% (n = 0), other (i.e.: forum, video): 26.67%, (n = 8). Among direct preventive websites the sender was: governmental bodies: 0% (n = 0); non-government organizations: 33.33% (n = 2); corporations: 0% (n = 0); private senders: 66.67% (n = 4); Form of communication was: monological: 33.33% (n = 2); semi-dialogical: 16.67% (n = 1); dialogical: 50% (n = 3); Age group was: children/adolescents: 16.67% (n = 1); young adults: 0% (n = 0), adults/elderly: 83.33% (n = 5). Conclusions Our results highlight the importance of developing Hungarian suicide preventive websites, especially for children, adolescents and young adults. The good news is, that during the study period there wasn’t found any Hungarian pro-suicide website.

Learning from Turbulent, Real-World Practice: Insights from a Whole-School Mental Health Promotion Project

Mental health promotion in schools has a growing literature on best practice, but there is insufficient exploration of whole-school change, particularly in every-day settings. We investigated the transfer of a high-profile, successful, whole-school mental health promotion demonstration project into a different context, a cluster of schools in a low-income area with fewer resources than the prototype model available to implement the project. Our study involved interviews with teachers, staff and parents. Despite the fact that significant features of the model program were not followed (for example any particular classroom-level curriculum, or extensive teacher training) the central organizational development process still led many participants to report a qualitative improvement in school climate. Internalizing the project as a mindset seemed to be the strongest way in which the project ‘existed’. Recommendations for strengthening practice in challenging contexts are outlined, in particular the use of info...

Philosophical dialogues as paths to a more ‘positive psychology’

AbstractAlthough family support programmes have been in place for several decades in Greece very little attention has been paid to evaluating the effectiveness of such endeavours, the techniques that influence their outcomes and the receptiveness to their messages. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of research findings collected during the first qualitative research phase of a community mental health promotion project. The research was conducted in order to delineate programme outcomes and the characteristics that had an impact on the participants' lives. The 3‐month family support programme intended to introduce ‘philosophical dialogues’ as means to developing personal and communal understandings of what makes life worth living. The programme was developed and implemented on Crete under the auspices of a non‐profit community organization appropriately named ‘The Lyceum for Women’. The features of the programme that contributed and enhanced the participants' tendencies to become not passive targets but active partners and stakeholders in the process will be clarified, as will the conceptualization and approach. Of the 45 evaluation protocols that were analysed the following themes were most important for the participants: ‘Group as‐a‐whole process’—the sense of sharing and development understandings in a ‘parea’ (in‐group); ‘relational outcomes’—feeling of belonging, ‘reciprocated kindness’, and giving of self to others; personal and emotional outcomes‐self‐efficacy and empowerment; knowledge outcomes‐learning about positive emotions and enjoying the simple things in life; and group facilitator outcomes‐sharing stories, ‘gives of self to the community’. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Presentation of a French mental health promotion project aimed at promoting parental skills and enhancing attachment in early childhood

Presentation of a French mental health promotion project aimed at promoting parental skills and enhancing attachment in early childhood

Using ethnographic methods for development of culture-specific interventions

Cultural specificity is considered important in developing effective school- and community-based interventions. This article illustrates the use of ethnographic research to enhance understanding of students' cultural experiences and facilitate the development of culturally specific interventions. Ethnographic data were collected during formative and intervention phases of a school-based mental health promotion project. Data were coded using an interactive deductive–inductive process. Culture specificity was defined as the integration of etic (universal) and emic (culture-bound) perspectives. Four culture-specific themes were identified: adult-sanctioned behaviors and practices, adolescents' perspectives about the present and aspirations for the future, and societal factors. These themes encompassed code categories reflecting cultural attitudes, beliefs, customs, expectations, norms, and values; and reflected the ecological framework that guided the research. Future research is needed to address the use of combined etic– emic conceptualizations of culture in the development of culture-specific interventions.

Local Community Mobilisation and Mental Health Promotion

The study is based on a mental health promotion project in seven local communities in North Norway. The point of departure is the concept of socio-cultural integration and its relation to mental health. Two cross-sectional surveys of the total population 18 years and older were carried out with an eight years' interval. Mental health, social support and local community integration were measured at both points in time. The most disintegrated community at T1, Heather (n=78), which also expressed low mental health, is compared with the pooled sample of the other six communities (n=1088). In the intervening period community development around a home for the elderly took place in Heather, whereas no organised efforts were carried out in the other six after the first three-year project period. At T2, Heather (n=55), had a positive development, both with regard to mental health and the dimension of local community integration. At T2, Heather, the former disintegrated community, is close to the rest of the commun...

Designing an evaluation framework for community mental health promotion

This paper describes the development of an evaluation framework to document the process, impact and outcomes of a community‐based mental health promotion project. This initiative, the Rural Mental Health Project, is concerned with the promotion of positive mental health in rural communities in the Republic and Northern Ireland. As a community‐based initiative, this project involves multi‐component interventions that are implemented with diverse target groups across a range of community settings. Assessing the process of programme implementation is critical in order to capture and document the realities of programme planning and implementation. The evaluation approach adopted in this project is based on a logic model research paradigm (Scheirer et al, 1995). This model gives equal emphasis to process and outcome evaluation and seeks to relate the realities of programme implementation to intended programme outcomes. Project activity is tracked prospectively in order to examine the detail of actual programme delivery and its influence on expected project outcomes. This paper outlines the model as applied in this project and explores the methodological and practical challenges in evaluating complex community interventions.

This was a great project!': reflections on a ‘successful’ mental health promotion project in a remote Indigenous school

Issue addressed: The complexities encountered in an Indigenous community when a white project support team assisted a school (Bwgcolman on Palm Island, Queensland) to implement MindMatters, a centralised, national project aiming to promote the psychosocial health of young Australians through the development of a comprehensive, school- based mental health promotion program. Approach: The MindMatters consortium offered pilot schools curriculum materials, professional development for staff, funding and ongoing support at a local level in return for their participation in the project. The support team flew to the island on two occasions to provide support. Conclusion: Whether or not MindMatters constituted a community project at Bwgcolman is debatable. Nevertheless, the project at Bwgcolman was considered a 'success' by key players since initial aims identified by the school were tangible (eg, professional development, curriculum development) and met in a way that the school could take ownership of. Additionally, behavioural management policy was implemented in a manner that was cognisant of a history of coercive relations with Indigenous communities. So what?: It is important in the telling of the success story at Bwgcolman that even though MindMatters endeavoured to be culturally sensitive, it was nevertheless a centralist mental health promotion program. Future mental health promotion initiatives need to be aware that the approach of the support team in attempting to hand back some community control at the local level may have played a role in the school succeeding. (author abstract)

Multi‐agency Work in Practice: The Evaluation of a Primary Care‐based Mental Health Promotion Project

This article reports the evaluation of the Choices Project, an initiative which was developed to address health inequalities and was piloted in a medical centre in an area of multiple deprivation. The article reports an evaluation of the pilot. The Project was found to have achieved its aims of addressing the mental, social and emotional health needs of clients living in a deprived area, and facilitating a multi‐agency approach to primary care health promotion. In addition to running a consultation clinic, the Project workers set up advice services, such as a welfare benefits and debt counselling service, and provided information about local resources. The results of the evaluation demonstrated the approach to be valued by the staff of the medical centre and effective for a significant number of clients who presented with a variety of problems which had serious consequences for health, but which were not caused by problems traditionally viewed as medical.

Individual - local community and mental health: Towards a comprehensive community psychiatric model for prevention of mental problems and promotion of mental health

Community psychiatric understanding points to complex-interactive contributions from a variety of community sectors concerning people's mental health. In the light of an ongoing fishery crisis in Lofoten, a mental health promotion project “Liv Laga i Lofoten” was planned. The theoretical basis of the “Liv Laga” model for mental health promotion is the interaction of recent strain situations, support from social networks, and personal resources; within a local community framework. The level of social integration-disintegration of the local community is dealt with both theoretically and in practice. The design of “Liv Laga i Lofoten” was developed through a process bringing the psychiatric out-patient clinic, the municipal health and social services, and local politicians together to secure local ownership and identification with the project. A main feature of the project work is the combination of close engagement, participation in planning and practical work, and the use of a scientific model as a continu...