Sana Ment
We promote emotional wellbeing for and with students.
What is Sana Ment?
Sana Ment is a comprehensive intervention aimed at young people aged 12 to 20 that promotes emotional well-being in educational centres in collaboration with other mental health promotion organizations. It is carried out within the framework of the Sentinel Schools network promoted by the Government of Catalonia and the European CONNECT project, which promotes participatory research in schools, as well as with the support of EduCaixa.
What is the objective of Sana Ment?
The aim is to empower students to become proactive advocates in promoting mental health by fostering collaboration with teachers, fellow students, mental health professionals, and other social actors.
How is it implemented?
Sana Ment is implemented in classrooms through a didactic guide that promotes participatory research with the involvement of families, mental health professionals, and other social actors.
Stages:
- DIAGNOSIS WITH PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH. Explore the needs surrounding mental health promotion from a systemic perspective.
- DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ACTION PLAN. Based on the obtained results, students design and implement a personalized action plan from a repository that includes activities from various local, national, and international reference programs.
- REFLECTION. Finally, students reflect on the learning and impact achieved with Sana Ment.
How was the didactic guide designed?
The didactic guide was designed during an initial strategic phase through a process of participatory research and co-creation with experts in various objectives that this intervention aims to achieve. This participatory research involved more than 1,600 students and their families, as well as teachers and mental health professionals during the academic year 2021-22, under the coordination of the Living Lab for Health of IrsiCaixa. The methodology used in this process, the System-Oriented Dialogue Model, was designed by the Living Lab for Health of IrsiCaixa and published in the International Journal of Public Health.
What is the difference between Sana Ment and other interventions promoting emotional well-being?
Sana Ment is characterised by being a comprehensive, personalized, collaborative and decentralized intervention.
Comprehensive
Students conduct a diagnosis through participatory research with an inclusive reflection that facilitates the identification of diverse issues related to their emotional well-being (assertive communication, recognition of emotions, socio-affective relationships, relaxation, responsible consumption, bullying, stigma, physical spaces, family expectations, connection to academic outcomes, organization in the educational center, etc.).
Personalized
Students design a personalized action plan to address prioritized issues in the classroom, using the Sana Ment repository that includes interventions from other organizations addressing various identified problems. This way, students select interventions that are most crucial for them at each moment.
Collaborative and decentralized
Students empower themselves to proactively promote their emotional well-being with the support of teachers and in collaboration with families and mental health professionals, who contribute to the extent possible. This approach allows the intervention to be sustained over time thanks to the leadership of students and teachers. It is also decentralized because it promotes collaboration with other mental health promotion organizations, which contribute resources to the Sana Ment repository.
How can educational centers get involved?
Interested educational centers can contact the Living Lab for Health of IrsiCaixa (livinglab@irsicaixa.es). They will be part of the current pilot phase of this program, which is being conducted during the academic years 2022-23 and 2023-24 to assess the usability, feasibility, and effectiveness of the comprehensive intervention.
What level of participation do we have?
So far, almost 3,000 students and more than 100 teachers from 25 educational centers have participated.
students
teachers
schools
Where can I find more information?
In the participatory research section of the Sentinel Schools network website, you will find more information, as well as access to the didactic guide and the repository.
The origin of Sana Ment
The first pilot of this program was carried out during the 2015-16 academic year and was driven by the Health Living Lab of IrsiCaixa, in coordination with the network of pilot schools of the educational program Xplore Health, and with the collaboration of the European project EnRRICH. Fifteen pilot educational centers from Catalonia and four research centers and universities participated: the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology of ISGlobal, the Educational Research Group in Health Sciences of Pompeu Fabra University, the Research Group in Mental Health and Social Innovation (SaMIS) of the University of Vic, and the Research Group in Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona.