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Pilot Program for Strengthening and Enhancing the Psychological Resilience of Children and Adolescents of Vulnerable Social Groups 2018-2019

Pilot Program for Strengthening and Enhancing the Psychological Resilience of Children and Adolescents of Vulnerable Social Groups 2018-2019
SUBMITTED FROM:

Society of Social Psychiatry and Mental Health (S.S.P & M.H.)

The Society of Social Psychiatry and Mental Health Panagiotis Sakellaropoulos (S.C.Ps.& Ps.Y. P. Sakellaropoulos) is a scientific, non-profit association founded in 1986. The first important steps that led to its establishment were taken in 1964 by the Professor of Child Psychiatry, Panagiotis Sakellaropoulos and his team of colleagues, who, inspired by the spirit of Social-Community Psychiatry, began working for psychiatric reform in Greece. Since then, the P. Sakellaropoulos Mental Health & Psychology Society has developed a wide network of activities in all areas related to Mental Health. Its services cover a large part of the psychiatric and child psychiatric needs of the residents of the areas where its structures operate, namely the prefectures of Attica, Fokida and adjacent areas, Fthiotida, Evros and the wider region of Thrace and include: services for the prevention of mental disorders, their early treatment and the social and professional rehabilitation of people with psychosocial problems, community education activities (information events, seminars, trainings, etc. α.)to inform and raise awareness of the population on mental health issues and combat the stigma of mental illness, implementation of training programmes aimed at developing highly qualified staff, as well as participation in European programmes and in European organisations and networks for mental health.



Objective Action

The goal of the Program is to promote the mental health, awareness and primary prevention of psychosocial disorders in school communities, with holistic interventions and separate action packages for students, parents, professionals and institutions, in collaboration with local communities. During the 2018-2019 school year, the Program was implemented and served the needs of a total of 51 school units in the Prefectures of Attica, Fokida, Fthiotida and Rodopi - Evros.
The project is a multidimensional program of primary prevention, awareness-raising, education, intervention and promotion of the mental health of the population, focusing on vulnerable groups. Through enhancing the mental resilience of children and adolescents -as well as their parents’ and teachers’- the Program strengthens the school units and civil society by promoting psycho-emotional support, solidarity, reciprocity and socio-economic inclusion.


The Program was structured with a vision to embrace and connect the school community triangle, the "parents, educators and students" with mental health professionals and the forces of the wider community: organizations, bodies, civil society, in an unbreakable unity with the aim of  strengthening mental health and mental resilience.

In particular, the specific objectives of the intervention program include:
• Prevention, early intervention and promotion of child protection with an emphasis on children belonging to vulnerable groups.
• Providing informal education to teachers to promote mental health, as well as child and adolescent protection

• Informing, educating and supporting parents of vulnerable groups so they can respond to their parenting role and increase their own 'mental resilience'.
• Counseling teachers so they can support their students.
• Enhance co-operation between the three target groups of children - adolescents, parents and teachers, supported by experts where required.
• Carrying out networking and cooperation actions with organizations active in this field.

 

Target Audience

The Program is addressed to all categories of the general population with emphasis on empowering vulnerable populations in the areas of Attica, Fokida, Fthiotida and Rhodope - Evros, with the aim of  prevention and early intervention, support, development of mental and social resilience and skills, psycho-education and smooth integration.

More specifically the Program is addressed to:

1. Pupils and young people from various vulnerable populations, including, inter alia: persons from religious or cultural minorities, refugees and immigrants, unaccompanied minors, Roma, children and young people from families with psychosocial problems at risk of being excluded or excluded from education or training or facing psychosocial, psycho-emotional, learning, developmental disabilities, people with disabilities and special abilities, parents with disabilities, single parent families, children with self-destructive, antisocial behavior (episodes of bullying, or minor offenses, internet addiction), children of refugees, unemployed, mentally ill, disabled people with degraded quality of life (e.g. housing, work, education, affected by natural disasters such as fire, earthquakes, floods).

2. To their families: with psychoeducation, information and awareness-raising seminars, Parent Schools, counseling and more.

3. To professionals, institutions and community actors (educators, mental health professionals working with children and adolescents): through experiential seminars and training workshops on topics such as educational support, coping with burn-out, developing their own mental resilience.

 

Duration

From October 1, 2018 - September 30, 2019, during the 2018-2019 school year


Description

The completed "Pilot Program for Strengthening / Enhancing the Psychological Resilience of Children & Adolescents from Vulnerable Groups, 2018-2019", was sponsored by the Attica Region.

During the 2018-2019 school year, in the Prefectures of Attica, Fokida, Fthiotida and Rodopi - Evros, a total of 887 actions were carried out involving 7,153 students, 695 parents and 399 teachers in a total of 51 school units.

 

Necessity of the Program

Due to the social and economic difficulties that the Greek society is experiencing, it is absolutely essential to ensure effective and quality child protection services for children and adolescents who are facing problems of abandonment, family violence, abuse and general inability to take family care due to poverty, delinquency or psychosocial problems.

Many children and adolescents face social exclusion among other problems, which may lead to early school abandonment. Research has shown that this vulnerable group of children is more at risk of developing self-destructive and antisocial behaviors. It has also been shown that self-destructive behaviors are linked to personality disorders, and in particular to a specific trait, "alexythemia", which is the inability to recognize and express personal feelings, to recognize others' feelings or to understand the cause of one’s feelings.

Through our work within the awareness-raising programs that we implement, addressing the general population, we have identified the need to reach vulnerable children and their families within their 'natural' school environment. It is an environment of complex needs in which particularly the vulnerable groups are subject to multiple social, moral and interpersonal pressures.

 

Content of the Program

The Program focuses on enhancing / strengthening the mental resilience of children and adolescents, with the aim of preventing problems and promoting their mental health, as well as on child and adolescent protection through early intervention and referrals to the appropriate mental health services.

Particular emphasis is placed on children, adolescents and families belonging to high-risk groups such as children with disabilities, as well as children of refugees, unemployed, mentally ill, persons with disabilities, etc., and school units in crisis with a variety of problems: incidents of domestic violence, school bullying, suicide in degraded areas of Attica, recognizing the great need for mourning and loss management.

The interventions targeted at children and adolescents, teachers and parents utilize the principles, methodology and techniques of NDI- Non Directivité Intervenante- (Non-Intervening Directivity), Art and Systemic Therapy. These interventions are organized in a series of informal educational seminars, built on the basic principle of non-directional transformational influence that can be exerted in a learning environment.

By proposing expression techniques through a variety of projective, physical and other techniques that utilize artistic, creative and theatrical expression, coming from different schools, cultures and traditions, participants seize the opportunity to elaborate on the potentials of expression, communication and interaction. Through active listening, an attitude of positivity, complete and unconditional acceptance, love, respect and trust in the evolving individual we build methodically, step by step an emotional relationship of equality, cooperation and alliance with adolescents, contributing to their psycho-emotional growth. At the same time we promote social values, such as collectivity, solidarity and equality, by applying the 'action research' methodology at every stage.

Innovation

The innovation of the program is to design interventions according to the latest scientific standards, methodologies and techniques derived from NDI, and Art and Systemic therapies. The interventions involve the triptych: "students - parents - teachers" in a dynamic reverse chain of promoting equality, psycho-emotional support, solidarity, reciprocity and the smooth integration of vulnerable.

The actions are organized into a set of informal educational seminars structured on the basic principle of non-directional transformational influence that can be exercised in an educational setting and addressed with separate sets of actions for adolescents, teachers and their parents. The pilot program utilizes the innovative material created under ERASMUS + / Youth: "DELIBERATE SELF HARM POSITIVE CHOICES" (1/4/2015 - 31/3/2017) More information: http://www.dshpc.eu/

The implementation of integrated interventions and the provision of effective and high-quality primary prevention services to all vulnerable groups that are subject to multiple social, ethical and interpersonal pressures in times of crisis, has the potential to be extended and applied to school units across the country.


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Impact on Society

Social Impact

With at least 8,247 participants and a total of 887 actions in 4 Prefectures, the Program has multiplied the social impact and visibility of the work of mental health services, contributing on a national level to eliminating the stigma associated with mental health problems and providing seamless, equal access to mental health services.

The program includes primary prevention of psychosocial problems that schools in Greece lack, while promoting social values ​​such as collectivity, solidarity and equality, adopting the methodology and characteristics of "action research" with a view to promoting mental health, raising awareness of the school community, enhancing the mental resilience of children and adolescents, and preventing mental disorders.

Ιnterventions addressed to mental health professionals are not intended to replace the autonomy of school community members (students - teachers - parents), but are helpful and supportive of the school community and the wider community in assessing their own needs, reflecting on the issues that concern them and in activating them to play an active role in the management and resolution of their individual and common problems, with the ultimate aim of recovering the lost feeling of teamwork and the school community consistency.



Initiative Location

The project was implemented in the Prefectures of Attica, Fokida, Fthiotida and Rodopi – Evros.

 


Working with Organization

I. The Program is implemented with an annual license from the Ministry of Education.

II. Collaboration has been achieved with leaders across the school institutional framework: Education Coordinators, Health Managers, School Unit Managers, Primary and Secondary Education Teachers, Parents' Associations, Student Councils

III. In addition, the project for the year 2018-9 was funded by the Region of Attica, which incorporated it as a child protection program.


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Workers Participation

The program involved at least 30 mental health professionals from various specialties, such as psychologists, special educators, speech therapists, psychotherapists, group therapists with experience in coordinating personal development teams. In addition, it was attended by 5 psychology students, as part of their internships and 10 experienced volunteers coming from various mental health specialties.


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Benefits for Οrganization

 The benefits of implementing our Program for our organization are multidimensional and include the following categories:

I. Effective and complete coverage of the population in primary care

Contributing to the primary prevention needs of the population in the prefectures of Attica, Fokida, Fthiotida, Evros-Rodopi in the sense of early and timely intervention in the child and adolescent population, and educating and sensitizing the teachers, the parents and the larger community through information and awareness raising activities, which is a priority of S.S.P.&M.H. P. Sakellaropoulos.

II: Development of Knowledge - Improving the quality of services

The actions have generated an impetus to expand the training base of the S.S.P.&M.H. P. Sakellaropoulos, by promoting the organization's know-how and overall ability to produce specialized executives that respond adequately to new social needs and to multifaceted work areas, while at the same time maintaining the identity, vision and quality of the services provided. The employees were empowered to educate people from vulnerable groups and generally people with psychosocial problems, on sensitive mental health issues and the available mental health services.

At the same time, through Programs of this caliber the S.S.P.&M.H. P. Sakellaropoulos's ability to maintain a healthy and attractive work environment, as well as to attract high-level professionals is increasing.

III. Scientific results

A. Presentations at scientific conferences

1. 7th Panhellenic Conference on Counseling Psychology: "Counseling Psychology and Socially Vulnerable Groups: Making the Invisible Visible", 8-11 / 11/2018, University of Thessaly. Presentation and workshop

2. International Mental Health Conference: "From Crisis Management to Sustainable Reforms", "MHPSS sub-working group Attika and MHSS Reference Group Inter-Agency Standing Commitee (RG IASC), 3-4 / 06/2019 at University Athens. Presentation and workshop

3. 26th International Non-Directional Intervention Therapy (NDI) Symposium, Panhellenic Non-Directional Intervention Association, 24-29 / 08/2019, Crete. Presentation and workshop.

4. 5th Symposium on Art Therapy: “The Transformational Object in Art, Psychotherapy and Society”, 9-10 / 11/2019, Athens

B. Producing Good Practices

1. “Success story” for its innovative material: The material from the “DSH Positive Choices” Program was selected by the “European Commission Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture” and is displayed on the Erasmus + Project Results Platform, which included representatives from: Greece, Great Britain, Turkey, Lithuania and Romania.

2. Good practice in social inclusion and non-formal education: The program was recognized as a good social inclusion practice by EDF (European Disability Forum) and CEFEC Social Firms Europe.

3. Submitted as Good Practice for Suicide Management: The program was submitted for recognition as good practice to the EUFAMI-European Federation of Associations of Families with Mental Illness management.

IV. Sustainability

The wide range and social impact of the program facilitates  the efforts to expand the funding of the Program's activities, through attracting donors and funding, collaborating with local agencies, other organizations and civil society organizations.

The project may be sustainable even after the completion of its initial implementation. The following are foreseen:

a) Its inclusion in the Community Education Programs and the Prevention and Awareness-raising programs of the S.S.P.&M..H P. Sakellaropoulos.

b) Mental health educators and volunteers have received informal training in this innovative approach by building skills they will reproduce in their workplace.

c) The program is expected to be standardized & presented as a flexible tool model for similar interventions utilizing the triangle: individual-community-civil society in the scientific community through conferences, networks, etc

d) The social impact is multiplied through hundreds of workshops, involving the participation of thousands of people, which is also a factor contributing to the sustainability of the project.

e) Information regarding the model will be available on the website of S.S.P.&M.H. P. Sakellaropoulos (www.ekpse.gr)

f) Lastly, the school community intervention model will be standardized in order to attract sponsors and funding for its continuation in the future.




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