Encyclopaideia (Mar 2021)

Educating to prevent youth (aged 16–24) mental distress: giving meaning to an educational effort

  • Maria Benedetta Gambacorti-Passerini

DOI
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1825-8670/11628
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 59
pp. 83 – 95

Abstract

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The present contribution proposes a reflection on the meanings of the actions of educational professionals when trying to prevent mental distress in their students and promote their well-being. This focus derives from the suggestion — indicated by Basaglia’s work in linking mental health to the existential, educational, social and cultural elements of everyone’s life conditions — that education can offer an important contribution to the development of, and support for, mental wellbeing. It would thus follow that educational professionals play a potentially pivotal role in promoting mental health and in preventing possible disease, if they are aware of the possibilities and are appropriately trained. This paper, based on a phenomenological approach, refers to the words of schoolteachers and other educators collected in a qualitative educational research project and presents and explores possible ways of giving meaning to educational work in these areas.

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