YAMH has applied the innovative life-skills approach (WHO): it addresses the need of building the needed competences for human development and adopting positive behaviours that will enable adolescents to deal effectively with the challenges of everyday life. Based on that, two main actions were covered: the Mental Health and Well-being promotion and protection. Through this project, the teachers and Youth Workers are able to protect and promote adolescents’ mental health, as they were trained to (i) identify and interpret key mental health issues and disorders’ early signs (mechanism of mental illness, prevalence, onset age, risk factors, treatability, and possibility of recovery) as well as the disorder’s early signs’ interpretation; (ii) combat the stigma on mental health disorders through the enhancing of help-seeking and, (iii) build up resilience at schools addressing the (a) social and interpersonal skills (communication, refusal skills, assertiveness, and empathy), (b) cognitive skills (decision making, critical thinking and self-evaluation) and (c) emotional coping skills (stress management, anger management and self-control).
Well-being and a positive mental health status are key aspects for every human, according to WHO. 50% of mental health problems in adulthood have their onset before or during adolescence. Exposure to adverse experiences and situations in childhood and adolescence can significantly affect mental well-being into the future, as, for example, the early leaving of the school system, the increase substance use or criminal behaviour in adolescence, which in turn increase the likelihood of exposure to other established risk factors in adulthood, such as unemployment, debt and social exclusion. The promotion and protection of Youth’s Mental Health is related to family and school. School shapes an adolescent, but it gives few chances to treat mental health, due to lack of available training for teachers and youth workers. These are the professionals with daily contact with the adolescents; but, they do not have the materials or tools to promote and protect youth’s or their own Mental Health. YAMH aimed to cover this gap; it equipped teachers and youth workers to promote and protect Youth Mental Health at school to tackle the aforementioned risks; also it supported the well-being and mental health at schools for both learners and educators.