About 80 professionals from the psychosocial care nuclei in schools (Napses) and the Intersectoral Committee of the State Psychosocial Care System in Pernambuco schools participate on Wednesday (10) of the course of law to practice: how to implement the National Policy of Mental Health in Schools. The course will address topics such as evolution in the legislation on the subject, care in freedom and deinstitutionalization, human rights, intersectoriality, protagonism of students and families, national and regional context on child mental health, among others.
The meeting discusses Law No. 14,819, promulgated in 2024, which establishes the National Policy for Psychosocial Care in School Communities, and goes to 11, with workshops and conversations to adapt the psychosocial support protocol to schools. The initial sketch of the training intended for educators and school managers will also be presented, followed by a moment of participatory listening to the teams, so that a proposal connected to the reality and the needs of Pernambuco can be built.
The course is promoted by the Global Center of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) for the mental health of children and adolescents, at the Child Mind Institute, the Institute of Health Policy Studies (IEPs), the Secretariat of Education and Sports of Pernambuco and the Ministry of Education,
Global Center Technical Supervisor in Brazil, Luis Augusto Rohde, explained that one of the course’s work fronts is the one that addresses the fundamental role of the school in promoting mental health of children and adolescents.
“We know that teachers and education professionals encounter, in everyday life, with mental health issues in the school environment, but often do not have the necessary tools to deal with them. This is precisely why the support of the state government and the elaboration of a structured plan are fundamental to creating a more conducive environment for students’ mental health,” said Rohde.
The objective is that, at the end of the course, the technical and political capacity to implement the law is strengthened between the school community and that collaborative production of the state action plan is stimulated, as well as aligning actions between different areas.
“The topics that will be worked and discussed in this course are very relevant to contribute to understanding and care with mental health. Evolution in legislation is important, but in fact it is implemented and provides a satisfactory result, we need to qualify the professionals who are at the end of young people in everyday life,” said Rohde.
Rohde stressed that the school is often a starting point for the mental health of children and adolescents, because it is in this environment that many spend most of the day, and is a place that is usually more friendly to children and adolescents than going to a mental health care station.
“Increasingly the equation of the health and education binomial has been thought. Epidemiological studies in Brazil and outside show that about 20% of children and adolescents have some emotional or behavioral problem that causes significant damage. The school is place where these conditions can be detected early by teachers and, at the same time, implement strategies to welcome and better include the student, resulting in a better school environment,” he said.
According to Rohde, teachers are in a very special position that allows them to perceive and identify these frames, so the importance of qualification, as many have a lot of time with the studentsthe. In this way it is possible to notice some suffering, loss of energy and interest and even more tragic state, so it is the identifications of these attention deficit, hyperactivity, behavioral problems. “Especially those who are in elementary education and even those of mid -level and have a comparison pattern. They know and are used to seeing several children and adolescents.”
In addition, Rohde emphasizes that it is necessary to work on the deconstruction of stigmas and prejudices about mental health in schools and create strategies to deal with different ways that allow the student’s proper development, facilitating the absorption of information in class.
“No doubt we have to deal with situations that still exist from obstacles for stigma and prejudice and we need to help the teacher recognize that there are emotional and behavioral paintings that determine things he saw as an inappropriate voluntary behavior of the child,” he said.
Following the course in Pernambuco, which was a very receptive state to develop and coocize interventions such as Global Center, the results will be analyzed to assess the possibility of extending the same course to other states.
