How to support the mental health of young people?

Dec 6, 2023News

Is talking about mental health still taboo?

Over the past two years, the partners of the project LETsTALK have worked extensively with teachers, educators and youth workers to strengthen their capacities in supporting the mental health of young people, with a focus on gender–sensitive approaches related to mental health.

At the beginning of the project, the partners spent time working on the development of Policy Analysis and Recommendations on the Mental Health of Young People and Gender Sensitive Needs. It is a document of policy recommendations based on a compilation and field research in 4 partner countries, addressed to policy makers, but also to managers and experts in the field of youth mental health and education of young people.

Identifying main problems with young people’s mental health, a gender-sensitive youth mental health programme and resource toolkit was developed: curriculum, practical handbook for young people and handbook for youth workers.

A mental health training was conducted with youth workers and youth leaders – 34 youth workers and youth leaders from Croatia, Greece, Italy and Serbia participated in this 5-day training in Rijeka to discuss together topics such as:

  • mental health of young people today;
  • emotions and gender;
  • social skills with a focus on communication, building and maintaining important relationships;
  • gender stereotypes and gender equality;
  • valorisation of young people’s voices.

Finally, the Digital Platform was created which contains all the results of the project together with up-to-date research, examples of good practice and stories on the topic of Mental Health and youth work.

To conclude the two-year journey, an event was held on 21 November where we talked about the link between mental health and violence, why it is important to educate and support young people. On this occasion the materials developed within the project were presented. Together with Non Una Di Meno Palermo and some experts in the field of mental health and many people who participated in this interactive talk we found out more about the link between gender violence and mental health.

LETSTALK – DEVELOPING GENDER SENSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM FOR YOUNG PEOPLE is a project financed by the program ERASMUS+KA: Cooperation partnerships in youth, and wants to strengthen the capacity of youth workers in supporting young peoples’ mental health with focus on gender sensitive approach to mental health issues.

Partners

For further information visit the website https://letstalk-project.eu/ or contact Katarina Vuksan: katarina.vuksan@danilodolci.org.