Pilot project on mental health days at schools draws positive interim review

Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) emphasized the importance of the project with the words: "Es soll an allen Schulen einen Austausch zu mentaler Gesundheit geben, egal in welcher Form." In doing so, he underscored the ambition to embed mental health as a cross-cutting issue in schools, regardless of specific timetables or subjects.

Education minister announces additional staff

For the coming school year, 70 new school psychologists have already been hired across Austria, Wiederkehr said. This is an initial step to improve care at schools and shorten waiting times for children and adolescents with psychological stress. The additional positions are part of a broader personnel initiative at the education ministry.

The scientific monitoring was carried out by, among others, a team from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The researchers evaluated the workshops using standardized instruments and compared the results with reference schools. Initial evaluations indicated that students at the project schools rated their knowledge of support services higher than those at comparison schools.

Scientific monitoring and initial results

Golli Marboe, responsible for child and adolescent psychiatry at Diakonie Austria, emphasized that the Mental Health Day reaches above all those who otherwise rarely talk about their feelings. Especially in classes with a heterogeneous composition, it was possible to lower inhibitions through the shared format. Teachers also reported a relieving effect on classroom climate.

Beyond the immediate school workshops, Diakonie sees potential to extend the concept to other school types. Partner organizations in South Tyrol and Liechtenstein have also shown interest in preparing their own pilot phases. An official transfer into the regular school system has not yet been decided, according to Diakonie.

Outlook on further school years

Critical voices from teacher representatives pointed out that additional offerings can only be effective if basic psychosocial care remains stable. They called for clear responsibilities between school psychology, school social work, and youth welfare services so that children can be reliably referred on after a workshop. Diakonie announced that the guidance materials for teachers would be revised accordingly.

Overall, the project leaders assess the progress so far as encouraging, but stress that long-term effects on students' well-being can only be examined in follow-up studies. The experiences from the pilot are to feed into a broad initiative to be presented in autumn together with the education ministry.

Martin Schenk expressed confidence that the positive feedback could provide the impetus for institutionalization. "Wenn Schulen ein solches Format aktiv einfordern, ist das das stärkste Argument, es in Regelstrukturen zu überführen," he said. Until then, the Mental Health Day remains a supplementary offer that schools can use on a voluntary basis.