Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, children and young people faced mental health challenges without significant investment in addressing them. With the entry into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health and well-being of children and young people remains severely compromised. According to the latest available UNICEF data, globally at least 1 in 7 children are directly affected by closures and restrictions, while more than 1.6 billion children have suffered some form of loss in the field of education.

Due to the interruption of regular life habits, education, socializing, due to concern for family income and health, many young people feel fear, anger and concern for their future. Young people spend a lot of time in school, so it plays an important role in their development. Time spent at school affects not only academic and cognitive progress, but also social interactions, peer relationships, emotional regulation, and behavior. All of these areas affect and are affected by mental health. Schools offer a unique environment to support children and young people in developing good mental health and resilience, preventing mental health problems and supporting effective treatment of existing conditions. Proper mental health care is especially important in early adolescence (between the ages of 10 and 19) because then the personality is formed and developed, and adolescents often face countless challenges. Adequate school and teacher support can have protective effects on young people’s mental health.

Despite all this, governments and societies are investing far too little in promoting, protecting and caring for the mental health of young people and their caregivers. also the findings of numerous studies published in several European countries show that the support that adolescents receive in school is based on the individual efforts of teachers, and not in an organized, systematic way. Therefore, with this project we want to improve the prevention of mental health at the school level in an organized, systematic and holistic way by improving the competencies of teachers for the application of preventive activities through teaching and extracurricular activities. We also want to develop and pilot a peer and parent support program to promote and preserve adolescent mental health. Our school is not focused only on the educational achievements of students, but we are primarily committed to the prevention, promotion, encouragement, support of the mental well-being of our students. Our previous Erasmus + project of strategic partnerships dealt with the prevention of violence in the school environment, which also affects the mental health of students.