Mental Health Power – Youth Workers’ Guide to promoting mental health
2023
Mental Health Power – Youth Workers’ Guide to promoting mental health
Promoting and strengthening young people's mental health is an important task for everyone who works with young people. The handbook “Mental Health Power” has been created in cooperation with youth workers from various fields and with mental health professionals.
The book was designed at MIELI Mental Health Finland, a mental health organisation whose mission is to promote mental health, provide crisis support and prevent mental health issues. We want to build a society where people can talk about mental health safely and without stigma and where all professionals working with children and young people realise their possibilities to strengthen mental health. https://mieli.fi/en/what-does-mieli-do/
The handbook “Mental Health Power” provides a new paradigm for mental health. Instead of diagnoses or symptoms, we will explore “mental health skills”, such as emotional skills, friendships and interaction skills, daily habits, values, crisis and coping skills and safety net which we approach from a youth workers’ perspective. These mental health skills contribute to better mental health by empowering young people to cope with challenges, make positive choices and find new friends. We must realise the many ways youth workers help young people learn and practice these skills.
Youth workers are excellent at creating safe and inclusive environments where young people can connect with peers and build positive relationships. Youth workers also provide guidance and resources to help young people develop emotional resilience and coping strategies.
In addition to theory, the book also contains many exercises and tools to put theory into youth work practice which you can apply in your work with young people.
It is empowering to realise that mental health skills are something we all can teach, learn, support, and strengthen. It is essential to show how the different ways youth work promotes mental health and how many possibilities youth work has in promoting it. Youth work matters.
It is vital that everyone who works with young people is aware of and masters the core topics of mental health and well-being education. When you understand their importance, it is easier to recognise the possibilities to strengthen them, help young people's mental health flourish, and minimise the effect that risk factors might have on them.
The handbook contains ten chapters on these mental health skills, and each chapter provides you with a series of exercises to help discuss and practice the topic with young people. The handbook is a source of information and inspiration for youth workers, and it encourages and inspires them to support young people's mental health.
You can download the book for free here: https://mieli.fi/en/materials/mental-health-power-book/
Posters to download: Hand of mental health. Available in 11 languages https://mieli.fi/en/materials/hand-of-mental-health/
