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In recent times, global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and geopolitical conflicts have significantly impacted pupils' mental health. This opinion article presents evidence-based recommendations to bolster mental health support within educational systems, aiming to alleviate the psychological burden faced by students during these challenging times. This article argues that a proactive, holistic approach to mental health is essential for building a resilient educational infrastructure. More than ever, we support the call for the integration of mental health education into the core curriculum, equipping students with vital coping skills and fostering emotional intelligence. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of training educators and staff to identify and address mental health issues. Furthermore, this article highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration involving general practitioners, mental health professionals, community organizations, and policymakers in crafting and implementing support strategies. Educational institutions can effectively leverage the expertise of diverse stakeholders to create targeted interventions by cultivating partnerships. Finally, the significance of continuously evaluating and refining mental health support policies to ensure their efficacy and adaptability in the face of evolving crises is emphasized. Through these comprehensive recommendations, this opinion article seeks to catalyze a transformation in educational policies, prioritize mental health support, and empower pupils to thrive during tumultuous times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significant role of the community in the lives of children and youth at-risk has become increasingly clear to social work academics and professionals over the last three decades. Alongside the more traditional individual and family responses, community interventions have been designed to catalyze change in the environment of children and youth at-risk and supply holistic and sustainable responses to their needs. Ten such community intervention programs were identified from the United States, Australia, Canada, and Israel. Most employed the community development model, focused on developing leadership and social capital (improving community networking) and advancing coordination between the organizations and sectors in the field of risk among children and youth. The diverse programs reviewed focused both on at-risk children and youth in general or specifically on child abuse and neglect. The programs originated from different health, education, and welfare disciplines and sponsoring authorities. The majority were funded originally by private foundations; however, government involvement was significant, particularly in the adoption and support of initiatives after their development. The current analysis of the programs refers to core issues that arose from the review: professional orientation, main target unit, main initiator, and research and evaluation. Analysis of program characteristics enables identifying relevant aspects of these programs for use by policy, governmental, and nonprofit sector stakeholders seeking to develop similar programs. Conclusions and recommendations to advance the field are suggested considering the current context of government cuts in welfare funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to a more nuanced discourse on vaccination policy. Current polarization between either mandatory and entirely voluntary is misleading, as virtually all immunization programs feature a combination of instruments that comprise mandatory and voluntary elements. We develop this argument by presenting five case studies from the European Union (EU). By systematically acknowledging the nuances of political and institutional varieties, we build the case for reframing the terms of the debate in the EU and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evaluators are often called to be flexible in response to changing programmatic and contextual circumstances. However, the field offers little guidance around issues to consider before modifying an in-progress evaluation. Purpose: This article describes the evaluation of an organization that underwent significant mid-evaluation changes, with a focus on factors that went into the evaluator's recommendations about whether to modify evaluation design and instrumentation. Setting: Community collaborative in Wake County, North Carolina. Intervention: NA. Research Design: NA. Data Collection and Analysis: The evaluator noted factors that went in to decisions about modifying evaluation design and instrumentation. Findings: Issues around validity and sustainability push evaluators to update evaluation designs to keep pace with changes, whereas issues around continuity and accountability pull back to the current course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Objectives: The European Commission has highlighted the use of sports as an important venue for engaging citizens in health-enhancing activities, physical activity, volunteerism and active citizenship. Coaching is a central component of sports for children and youth, but there is little research on the promotion of sports coaches' health. In the light of this gap, the aim of this paper was to elucidate youth soccer coaches' visions and thoughts regarding leadership support from clubs and soccer associations. Design and method: The study was based on an online questionnaire conducted with Swedish soccer coaches who coached children and young people between 6 and 18 years of age. In total, 1514 coaches received the online questionnaire via email and 764 coaches (50.5% of the sample) answered. Three hundred and seventy-five coaches answered the open question: 'How would you describe the support you, as a coach, would like to receive from clubs and associations?' Responses were analysed using method. Results: Four main themes emerged from the analysis: financial and other resources support, recognition of contribution, sense of belonging to a value-based association and positive coach development. Conclusion: We discuss the factors that support soccer coaches and how these can serve as health-promoting supports for coaches working with children and youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this research are to identify, for the first time, the dysfunctional features and processes perceived to take place in assessment centers (ACs) from multiple perspectives (assessment center designers, assessors, and candidates) and to indicate the frequency of these phenomena. Two surveys were conducted in this study. In the first, a wide variety of dysfunctional processes and events were identified, and, in the second, many of these processes are reported to occur with regularity. Based on these findings, it is proposed that ACs should be construed, researched, and managed, not only as large-scale psychometric systems, but also as complex administrative, social, and political events susceptible to a broad range of dysfunctional phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003, the South Korean national government implemented a systematic school social work program known as the Education Welfare Priority Zone Plan (EWPZP). The EWPZP was designed to enable all related educational and social agencies in a zone to serve students in need by situating schools within the communities' welfare networks. This research project aims to examine the characteristics of educational welfare networks in a target area in Seoul, South Korea, and assess levels of inter-agency collaboration. The authors also suggest that the EWPZP project needs to institutionalize greater collaboration between schools and welfare organizations and to make networks tighter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the Mental Health campaign initiated by the Australian Medical Students' Association in 2013. Topics discussed include the four core principles of the organization's campaign and the strategies adopted by the group for its campaign which include the National Vice-Chancellor Tour and Blue Week.