- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2023
Supporting mental health and care for the wellbeing of vulnerable children and young people
"Child & Youth wellbeing and mental health first"
This multi-country technical support project aimed at improving the provision of mental health, wellbeing and psychosocial support to children and young people. It was implemented in Spain (concretely in Andalusia), Cyprus, Italy and Slovenia.
Context
Mental health and wellbeing among children and young people are a growing concern in Europe and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The multi-country project has been identified as Flagship number 9 of the European Communication “A comprehensive approach to mental health” from June 2023. It has delivered on the comprehensive approach on mental health by developing tools and building capacity across sectors to address healthy lifestyles and the prevention of mental health problems of youth and children.
The project is in line with the European Child Guarantee, that aims to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing the access of children in need to a set of key services, including health, social and education services.
Support delivered
The project supported four EU Member States to undertake reforms that improve access to mental health care and services for youth and children. The project started with a comprehensive analysis of the policies and programmes supporting youth wellbeing and mental health in the specific EU Member State, highlighting the good practices and bottlenecks.
It helped to enhance professionals’ knowledge, awareness and capacity regarding support services that are not part of their own sector to ensure a timely and effective delivery of services to address mental health care needs. Children and young people co-created recommendations on youth mental health and wellbeing.
Results achieved
The multi-country project equipped national/regional authorities with a cross-sectoral framework for developing and implementing a model for healthy lifestyle and mental health provision for youth and children and have the necessary capacity and tools to actively address the issues in close cooperation with youth and children.
More about the project
You can read the documents related to the project here: