Mental health problems pose a significant and unnecessary obstacle for students to overcome in the classroom. Studies show that students with emotional disturbance and poor social-emotional functioning have difficulty meeting academic standards. Mental Health is a looming issue within the European Union with reports suggesting that 160,000,000 Europeans (38% of the populace) are affected each year. (Wittchen, H.-U. et al. Eur. Neuropsychopharmacol. 21, 655-679 (2011). | Article). Additional studies show that mental health problems may cause learning obstacles for our young people and students, therefore providing diagnosis, awareness and support in our learning organisations will be key as we move forward to the future as these young people move from education into employment. This is further endorsed by Warwick et al (2008), highlighting a number of factors that influence provision of support services for students: * awareness amongst professionals of links between student’s mental health and their achievement at college * having in place national/college policies that address mental health * building an inclusive college ethos * access to in college/external support services * provision of professional opportunities for staff The OSCAR project aims to identify best practice in how organisations across the EU tackle the issue of student drop out through having mental health challenges. It also aims to take a wider view through the approach of identifying ways of enhancing positive well being, as well as improving systems in mental health challenges. The best practice approach will arise from research and the synthesis of ideas into a trainers toolkit that will be developed based on a common set of standards but customised by each partner for their own territory. Training will be given by the D&A service design team to the partners. Service design techniques will be used to create new user and learner journeys through the education system, to ensure that those with possible issues are not ignored or missed out and the appropriate support mechanism are in place. Also that connections are made to the relevant agency for individuals at the right time so drop outs are avoided where possible. The partners will work with local, regional and national agencies and charities will act as advisers and 'test beds' for the OSCAR approach and materials. and then a set of guidelines for organisation and managers will be published that will embed the process into the partner's VET education systems. The local bodies will also act as dissemination routes for the project and its outputs. The project aims to reach, via a cascaded training process - 100 teachers and 1,000 learners, who may have been at risk of drop out due to some social, mental or related issue - therefore OSCAR will have a direct impact on the lives of learners in the partner countries. The project partners will attempt to identify and measure the impacts of the project by comparing the student's retention rates compared to a norm for the group. OSCAR aims to: 1. Identify a baseline of current mental health awareness processes and procedures in partner countries; 2. Identify current Best Practice in the area of mental health, mental health awareness and curriculum design in VET organisations that will increase student retention 3. Use the service design philosophy to identify solutions to the current issues on an European and National level 4. Provide a ‘train the trainer’ approach for VET staff in mental health awareness based on project learnings 5. Disseminate via guideline development for relevant stakeholders and development of policy recommendations for policy makers.
Our key objective was to find ways of supporting learners with mental health challenges, in order to help retain them as learners and increase their attainment: 1. Identify a baseline of current mental health awareness processes and procedures in partner countries. 2. Identify current Best Practice around mental health, mental health awareness and curriculum design in VET organisations that will increase student retention 3. Use the service design philosophy to identify solutions to the current issues on a European and National level 4. Provide a ‘train the trainer’ approach for VET staff in mental health awareness based on project learnings 5. Disseminate via guideline development for relevant stakeholders and development of policy recommendations for policy makers. We decided pre-application with the partnership, that as each of our organisations, regions and countries had different needs and requirements, and that we were all at different stages of our mental health support journeys, that it would make sense for each partners to develop their own materials that worked for their own learners and the challenges they face, rather than take a one-size fits all approach.
The OSCAR project was developed due to issues the lead partner were having in their organisation. Upon researching a little, we realised that mental health was a looming issue within the European Union with reports suggesting that 160,000,000 Europeans (38% of the populace) were affected each year. (Wittchen, H.-U. et al. Eur. Neuropsychopharmacol. 21, 655-679 (2011). | Article). Additional studies showed us that mental health problems may cause learning obstacles for our young people and students, therefore providing diagnosis, awareness and support in our learning organisations would be key as we moved forward to the future as these young people moved from education into employment. The OSCAR project aimed to identify best practice in how organisations across the EU tackled the issue of student drop out due to having mental health challenges. Regarding the needs that were addressed, Intellectual Output II delivered a larger store of materials than expected, covering numerous different issues that were of major importance to the users in the relevant organisations. By developing individual solutions and materials, the project has managed to generate an excellent material resource for others to view, use and amend as they see fit