The “Ame sua Mente na Escola” project (Portuguese for “Love your mind at school”) aims to build a new culture around mental health in the school environment, thus working towards preventing mental disorders in young people, reducing stigma, and resolving mental health issues related to learning.
The project is implemented through partnerships with organizations working on the topic. During the period from 2020 to 2022, the Umane Association and the ABCD Institute supported the project in order to build an effective, feasible, sustainable, and scalable model of mental health training for public school educators in the state of São Paulo.
Currently, facilitated by a pool of donors, the project covers approximately 1,500 schools. The initiative has been implemented in the education system of the state of São Paulo through a partnership between the Institute and the Department of Education of the state of São Paulo (SEDUC-SP)/Escola de Formação dos Profissionais da Educação – EFAPE (Teacher Training School).
The course also covers 85% of the municipal school system in the city of Santos through collaboration between the Institute and the Municipal Department of Education.
Through classes developed by experts from our Institute, we aim to enhance educators’ knowledge of strategies for managing, preventing, and reducing stigmas associated with mental disorders, as well as improving the mental health of education professionals themselves.
See the results of the survey conducted with participants during the project’s three years.
Click here to view
82,2% of schools identified positive changes in the way the topic of mental health is addressed after going through the project;
98% would recommend the training to a fellow educator;
86,6% of participating schools attributed to the project a medium or high knowledge gain in mental health. Among schools with more staff members trained and/or greater exposure to the project, this percentage reaches 100%;
71,1% began identifying possible cases of mental health among students;
64,4% improved the way they manage and deal with cases;
61,7% transformed their perceptions of mental health.
This social technology is also the subject of scientific research by the Center for Research and Innovation in Mental Health (CISM), one of the largest national academic initiatives, bringing together researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), and University of São Paulo (USP).
All content produced by the Ame Sua Mente Institute is scientifically based, adapted to simple language to facilitate understanding and democratize the topic. The goal is for materials to be interactive, in formats that ensure mental health literacy.
Why is “Ame sua Mente na Escola” important?
- 75% of mental disorders appear before the age of 24;
- 50% of cases arise by the age of 14.
The presence of untreated mental health problems in children and young people can have immediate consequences, such as reading delays, learning deficits, repetition, and school dropout, as well as having an impact on various aspects of their adult lives.
In Brazil, only 20% of young people with mental disorders receive treatment. This scenario is largely a result of lack of knowledge and the stigma surrounding the subject.
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