The project aimed to improve secondary school students' mental health, particularly due to the pandemic's impact on adolescents. Our goal was to equip secondary school teachers with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to address mental health challenges and contribute to their prevention within schools. By focusing on schools, we aimed to mitigate social injustice, as they reach all children, regardless of socioeconomic background. Integrating mental health support and prevention aimed to ensure all students, especially those facing barriers, receive the guidance needed for well-being and academic success. In addition, we wanted to simplify access to existing mental health materials, making it easier to find and utilize high-quality resources. To maximize impact, we wanted to design the project outcomes to be practical, concise, and immediately applicable in the classroom. Understanding the demands placed on teachers, we wanted to prioritize usability, ensuring that our materials were effective and also easy to integrate into daily teaching routines. By implementing the SENSE project, we ultimately sought to empower teachers as key facilitators of mental health awareness, prevention, and early intervention in schools.
The COVID-19 pandemic, alongside resulting restrictions, caused a notable growth in mental health problems and a decline in mental well-being. Several factors, including lockdowns, remote learning challenges, reduced teacher-student interactions, social isolation, health concerns, and uncertainty about the future, contributed to a rise in mental health issues like sleep disturbances, anxiety, sadness, addictive behaviors, eating disorders, self-harm, depression, and suicidal tendencies. Although individuals across all age groups were affected, adolescents were particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of the pandemic due to prolonged disruptions in their social, emotional, and developmental needs. The current situation highlights a significant gap in providing support for all those in need. Access to therapy is hindered by long waitlists, and many may face barriers that prevent them from getting the care they need. The pandemic has demonstrated that interventions aimed at fostering resilience and promoting strong mental health are more crucial than ever to prevent future challenges. The SENSE project was developed to address the critical consequences of the pandemic and contribute to mitigating its detrimental effects.