Shaping Emotionally Nurturing School Environments

Since 2000, a plethora of information material on different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including possible consequences on mental health, have been devised and published. Ministries of education and health ministries, e.g. in Germany and Austria, have created information platforms where partly already existing material and partly new material specifically made for the corona virus pandemic can be accessed.4 However, existing resources are hard to find, hidden away in different websites. Sometimes, extensive research is needed to find useful material. Material tends to be more theoretical in nature, informative but with little immediate usefulness for teaching. Project aims to equip teachers to prevent and address mental health issues among their students. In order to provide additional benefits over already existing mental health resources, the resources provided by this project must: Be primarily preventive Be easily accessible Be ready to be applied in the classroom Be to the point, "bite sized" Not burden teachers with responsibilities of social workers or psychologists, but enable them to educate and intervene on a very basic level Ideally be embedded into curricula or continuing training programmes Results developed by SENSE 1. Information brochure How to strengthen mental health / resilience among students, e.g. Create routines, rituals, make room for relaxing activities Offer emotional and social support Strenghten relationship teacher-students, foster friendships between students Encourage positive thinking How to include mental health education in classes regardless of subject How to spot mental health problems among students How to provide low-threshold support for students with mental health problems How to get help from professionals for students with mental health problems 2. In-service training course (curriculum and materials for online course and f2f seminar) 3. Mental health toolbox for classroom use - Materials and methods for the classroom