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Home Lifestyle Mental health The “To sem jaz” youth mental health programme is an international example of good practice recognized by the OECD

The “To sem jaz” youth mental health programme is an international example of good practice recognized by the OECD

Mental health

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Public Health Achievements in Slovenia

Zadnje posodobljeno: 16.07.2024

Objavljeno: 21.05.2024

On May 21, 2024, we celebrated the 23^rd anniversary of the “To sem jaz” youth mental health programme, which has been developed and led since its establishment in 2001 at the Celje Regional Unit of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), with the support from the Ministry of Health. During a professional meeting marking this milestone, we highlighted current updates and planned activities. This award-winning programme recently received another prestigious recognition: it became the first Slovenian mental health programme selected by the OECD as an international example of good practice. Its proven operational model can be replicated in other OECD member countries.

The “To sem jaz” programme is focused on strengthening the mental health and psychological resilience of young people by developing skills and competencies that support adolescents as they grow up and serve as a protective measure in crisis situations. The programme team invites schools in Slovenia to include the programme in their annual plans for the upcoming school year and encourages them to continue promoting the #Tosemjaz website as a supplementary resource for assistance in times of need. The oldest and largest online counselling service for young people in Slovenia, available at www.tosemjaz.net, has provided simple, anonymous, and free access to professional advice for several generations of youth. A unique feature of the online counselling service is its inter-institutional and interdisciplinary network of volunteer experts, which today includes 100 online counsellors. According to the editorial team, they answered 3,500 questions from young people last year, and the online counselling service was visited by more than 200,000 users over the course of the year.

Among the programme’s handbooks, young people have access to the multimedia self-help guide ” What Can I Do to Make It Easier? Skills for Everyday Life and Sources of Support in Distress.” (in Slovenian) The guide is supported by QR codes that direct readers to online sections, a database of audio materials, and guided self-help exercises. In 2023 – Slovenia’s Year of Mental Health – the guide was distributed systematically to all primary schools, reaching the entire generation of ninth-graders in Slovenia as part of a national campaign by NIJZ, supported by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. In four print runs from 2021 to 2024, the guide has exceeded 50,000 copies. It communicates to young people that experiencing distress during adolescence is common, normalizes various experiences, and offers practical tools for coping with unpleasant emotions.