Tips for better mental health in schools with a concentration of vulnerable groups: Educational mediators
How can we help improve mental health in schools with a concentration of vulnerable groups?
Advice for educational mediators: Your work is particularly important as a bridge to parents. Although you are not psychologists, teachers or class teachers, you can help all of them by:
- Establish a trusting relationship with parents and students, so that you understand when there are problems with students, threats of early
marriage, violence against the student, domestic violence, other problems that affect mental health: by working directly in the community, you can be the first to understand what problems arise with your students’ families and with them. Inform class teachers and teachers, look for a solution together. Remember that it is always better to do something in advance, before the problem has worsened. For example, it is better to dissuade parents and/or young people from early marriage than to work on this issue afterwards. - Work to overcome the stigma in the community regarding mental health and seeking help: in the whole society it is not accepted to talk about mental health problems and to seek specialized help. This stigma is especially strong in the Roma community and among other vulnerable groups. Work with families to change this! Anyone can have mental health problems, be desperate and not know how to find a solution to the problems they face. There is nothing shameful in seeking help from a psychologist or other specialist. And when it comes to problems that children face – it is imperative to seek specialized help. Our children should not be victims of stigma and stereotypes regarding mental health services.
- Help the community to receive detailed information about mental health services in your municipality and region, as well as to build trust in them: a study by the Amalipe Center clearly shows that Roma and other minorities do not know what services are available and who they can turn to for help with mental health problems. Explain these issues to the parents you work with! Convince them to use the available services, especially when it comes to their children!
- Organize campaigns and discussions in the community about the need to overcome early marriages, for better education for girls and for supporting schools and kindergartens: your work as educational mediators is not only related to working on cases of students who do not attend school. You have the very important task of organizing discussions in the community on important topics. When you have the trust of the parents, you can gather many of them and talk about topics such as better education for girls and all children, how parents can support the activities of the school and many others. You can invite teachers, psychologists, social workers, municipal employees and other specialists to these discussions. It is not necessary to know in detail all the issues that concern the community, but it is enough to know the main topics and who to invite for the discussion. And in this regard, you can be a bridge between parents and institutions – your work will be highly appreciated by all of them.
Cover photo: Radost Petkova
Mental health at school – can we talk about it without stereotypes?
