The VIP school programme -Guidence and Information on Mental Health in Schools.
Poster B56, Tuesday, October 9, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Essex Ballroom
Mia Iversen1, Espen Hansen1, Jorid B Steigum1, Maya Kaur1; 1Vestre Viken Hospital Trust
The intervention is universal preventive for classes of 16-17 years old students. Experience, based on 18 years of development and implementation in the field Mental health in schools.The VIP Programme is founded by the Norwegian Directory of Health and owned by Vestre Viken Hospital Trust. The aim is to help students learn more about mental health, and provide information about what kind of help is available, should psychological problems occur. Strengthen teacher’s ability to support students. Equip teachers to discover early mental illness among the students. How to do it: A national VIP-team facilitate the implementation in each high school. The implementation is cross-sectional and involves the school administration and teachers, school nurse and specialist mental health persons.They participate in a work-shop at each school. For students, the VIP programme takes a minimum of three hours with a teacher and a two-hour session with health personnel and is founded on dialogue, empowerment and salutogenesis. Material: Student booklet, manual for teachers and health-workers, and a homepage with assignments for students. Conclusion: A research project on the intervention showed significant positive effects on students health seeking behavior, self-reported anxiety and self-reported peer-problems. Early help from the health care system will provide students with mental problems with a faster recovery and a reduced risk of recurrent. In order to get early help, however, students’ knowledge of the area is essential.
Topic Area: Other