The Strategies for Safety and Wellbeing (SSW) mental health intervention was found to be the most effective among five programmes analysed for the research, which involved more than 30,000 pupils across 513 schools.
This project helps pupils to “better understand how to differentiate” feelings such as sadness from mental ill health and “where to access support if needed”, said the research team from mental health charity Anna Freud and University College London.
Pupils across years 4 and 5 in primary school and years 7 and 8 in secondary school took part in the research, which ran between 2018 and 2024.
“In primary schools, SSW significantly improved mental health literacy", with a view to enabling children to seek help if mental health problems arise in the future, according to the research, adding: “When implemented in full, a significant rise in mental health literacy was seen in secondary schools.”
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