a universal curriculum for increasing mental health literacy

On My Mind

On My Mind is a universal curriculum for increasing mental health literacy and was developed to be integrated in diverse cultural, structural, and school contexts.

The curriculum consists of 18 lesson plans and is designed to be delivered over the course of a school year by trained teachers. 

On My Mind is based on the following principles: evidence-based, collaborative, positive and sustainable to provide teachers and students with increased mental health literacy. On My Mind is based on scientific evidence and ongoing research of mental health literacy conducted by the child and adolescent mental health working group. See our list of publications here

Georgia

Organization: Baltic to Black Sea Alliance (BBSA)

Chairperson: Prof. Tina Tsomaia M.D, PhD. 

Email: t.tsomaia@gipa.ge

Project Lead: Dr. Simon Surguladze, PhD, DSc.

Email: simon.2.surguladze@kcl.ac.uk

Grant: SGG80021GR3090 from U.S. Embassy Democracy commission small grant program.

Co-sponsors: Pasha Bank and TBC Bank.

Dates: 2021-2022

Description:

Well-being, Equity and Education: Implementation of Social-Emotional Learning curriculum in Georgian schools.

Translation of OMM curriculum materials, training of Georgian trainers by Czech specialists, training of 20 teachers from 24 schools located in 10 regions of Georgia by Georgian trainers, delivering OMM curriculum to 810 students. Project evaluation  demonstrated significant changes in predicted direction e.g. improved stress management skills in teachers and increased mental health literacy in students.

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The On My Mind curriculum was developed by the National Institute of Mental Health’s Working Group on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research in collaboration with Czech and international experts from government, education and mental health sectors.

On My Mind has been implemented widely in the Czech Republic, and is available to be translated and implemented in additional languages and contexts.

The following collaborators and funders support On My Mind activities:

Czechia

Organization: RSJ

Grants: NP-038-2010, NP-018-2018

Dates: 2018-2019; 2019-2020

Description: The On My Mind curriculum was developed and implemented with the support of the RSJ Foundation.

 

Organization: EEA and Norway Funds

Grant: ZD-ZDOVA1-025

Dates: 2021-2024

Description: Project SUPREME-MH (Strengthening Universal Prevention, Resources, and Evaluation of Mental Health in Education) supported a randomized controlled trial of On My Mind in Czechia and the preparation of the course for training of trainers.

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If you are interested in implementing On My Mind in your country, please contact our coordinator below for more information. The child and adolescent working group at NIMH, Cz is available to support implementation projects as well as applied research of On My Mind using the curriculum and monitoring and evaluation tools.

Curriculum

On My Mind consist of 18 lessons divided into 5 topics (1 lesson/45 minutes):

Mental Health

1: Health
2: Mental Health
3: Brain and hormones
4: Stress in our bodies

Students are introduced to the program and learn about mental well-being and the effect of stress and hormones on mental health.

Emotional literacy

5: Emotions
6: Emotional regulation
7: Thoughts
8: Behaviour

Students learn to notice and name their emotions and thoughts and recognize the impact on behaviour. Students are guided in practices improving their ability to regulate their emotions and behaviour.

Relationships

9: Knowing myself
10: Relationships with others
11: Building empathy

Students realise the importance of relationships both with self and others, and learn healthy relationship skills including developing and practising empathy, respect, and kindness.

Communication

12: Communication basics
13: Communicating emotions
14: Healthy communication

Students deepen their communication skills, learn to better deal with conflicts and challenging situations and realise their agency in behaviours and communication strategies.

Mental health first aid

15: It’s OK not to be OK
16: Mental health care
17: Seeking help
18: My Mental Health Plan

Students learn signs and symptoms of mental health problems, types of mental health care, and help-seeking knowledge and resources. In the end, each student creates an individualized mental health plan.

The curriculum is intended to be delivered over the course of a school year with a consistent teacher and class, averaging one lesson plan per week. The knowledge and skills students learn are built upon in subsequent lessons.

Each lesson teaches students 3 key takeaways using a variety of teaching methods including lectures, experiential exercises, individual, pair or group activities, practices, reflection, observation and discussion. After each lesson students journal 3 key takeaways and 1 personal discovery. Journal. Every lesson ends with an experiment, giving students encouragement to actively practice mental health promoting practices over the course of the week.

What do teachers and students who have already gone through the programme have to say about On My Mind?

Teacher training

All teachers of the On My Mind programme are provided with comprehensive 24 hour training (3 days), manual with the necessary theoretical and practical context and journals for students. It includes 18 lessons with detailed information on how to deliver the lesson and what to do in it.

Training objectives:

Training of Trainers

The On My Mind scale-up follows a train-the-trainer (ToT) model, whereby devoted trainers become subject experts in mental health literacy and take on the responsibility of ensuring fidelity in implementation of the program in their given context over a long-term collaboration with the National Institute of Mental Health, Czech Republic. The process of becoming a Trainer of Trainers is intended and designed for teacher trainers from organizations who want to scale their impact. The ToT consists of an online educational course followed by a 2 day in-person course.

Contact us

Email us at dzda@nudz.cz.

You can also contact our coordinator:

Magdalena Lukasová

magdalena.lukasova@nudz.cz
tel: +420 774 410 192