Promoting mental health through schools

Weare, K. (2010). Promoting mental health through schools. In P. Aggleton, C. Dennison, & I. Warwick (Eds.), Promoting Health and Well-being through Schools (pp. 24-41). New York, NY: Routledge.

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In this chapter, Professor of Education Katherine Weare discusses how schools are an important setting for mental health promotion being that is where children and adolescents spend a large amount of their time. The school is a place that serves as an easy-access environment with direct day-to-day contact and its role, in helping to establish identity, interpersonal relationships, and other transferable skills.

Furthermore, Weare examines approaches for promoting positive school mental health of various levels of intensity. One approach is the social and emotional program popularized by Goleman. The program places focus on skills such as self-understanding, understanding and managing feelings, and empathy. Another approach is by the Department for Children, Schools, and Families in England based on a three-wave model, a variety of levels of mental health need and an escalating intensity of appropriate response.