Schule aus dem Geist von Public Health?

Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz - Im Rahmen der Gesundheitsförderung im Sinne der Ottawa-Charta wird der Schule eine Reihe von Aufgaben und Funktionen...     

„Teachers’ Mental Health Literacy“

Background

According to conservative estimates approximately three million children experience at least one parent with a mental disorder every year. This is about a quarter of all students in Germany. Burden patterns and attempts at coping also become manifest in children’s school lives, mostly with impairments in their learning performance. For teachers this means occupational stress as well.

Objectives

The subproject TEACHER-MHL of the HLCA Consortium will investigate current knowledge of teachers in different types of schools (1st–6th grade), who are dealing with pupils experiencing a critical life-event such as the mental illness of a parent and thus running a higher risk of health disorders. In addition, a program will be developed for the further training of teachers in different types and levels of schools.

Materials and methods

The following steps are planned: systematic literature review, semistructured interviews with teachers, quantitative survey to gather data about specific competences of teachers, and developing and testing a training program for teachers.

Results

By participating in the developed training module, it is expected that specific competencies and the sustainable empowerment of teachers will be promoted, resulting in a significant improvement of school health promotion and support for teachers.

Conclusions

The focus is on a high-risk group that has not yet been sufficiently taken into consideration in professional discussions about school settings. The subproject will determine the current needs of a professional group in dealing with affected students and transfer the results into practice. This paper gives an overview of this research project.