Promoting mental health support systems for vulnerable children and youth
Vulnerable children and youth are at higher risk of mental health problems due to adverse experiences they may have faced, as evidenced by case studies in Romania, Greece, Albania and Kosovo. However, public health systems are too often ill-equipped, both in terms of capacity and resources, to meet these needs. Therefore, the Unity in Care: Advancing Mental Health Support Systems for Vulnerable Children and Youth project proposes universal and preventive mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) measures, which can be provided by mental health professionals and non-mental health professionals, including local NGOs, with the aim of strengthening the resilience of vulnerable children and young people.
The project is designed taking into account the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) MHPSS pyramid and aims to equip human health and non-human health professionals with prevention methodologies. Thus, interventions will be more accessible, less costly and more integrated into the current life circumstances of vulnerable children and young people, while reducing the burden on specialized mental health institutions.
The project will adapt, contextualize and implement interventions from the Movement, Games, Sports and Creativity (MGSC), Move On & Engage, I-support My Friends methodologies to support particularly vulnerable groups in these countries. This will provide the basis for collecting and disseminating best practices, knowledge and training materials through the establishment of technical working groups and measuring impact through the most significant change stories, using the European Child Protection Hub platform.
An international Children and Youth Advisory Board (CAB) and four such National Councils will be established, already a tested mechanism to ensure valuable collective participation.
The project aims to deliver 12 training courses and train at least 216 mental and non-mental health professionals, reaching 1,300 people and facilitating working groups within the project to support all those promoting the mental health and psychosocial well-being of vulnerable children and young people.
