Issue 3/2023

INTERACTIVE PLATFORM FOR MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT AND RISK BEHAVIOUR PREVENTION: ONE YEAR OF PILOT OPERATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Interactive Platform for Mental Health Support and Risk Behaviour Prevention (iprev.cz) is a tool to promote quality in prevention and to support prevention professionals both in schools and among external providers of prevention programmes for children and adolescents. The platform consists of three main components: a catalogue of evaluated prevention programmes, education support for prevention workers and professionals, including a range of training activities and courses, and a component focused on quality assurance and safety in prevention.

During the past year, the team has managed to establish cooperation with a number of experts, schools and educational institutions. The platform is based on community prevention approach and connecting communities with resources. The platform is growing thanks to feedback from the field and reacts on the current topics in the field of risk behaviour and mental health. The team regularly participates in national and international conferences (EUSPR, ICUDDR), organise field visits to regions and works closely with prevention providers, especially school prevention methodologists. IPREV digitises, updates and communicates the results of a number of projects in line with open science. It serves students as a source of study materials, prevention methodologists as a service platform for their work, and families, carers, adolescents and educators as a source of evidence-based information.

In the section on quality in prevention we disseminate the evidence on effective prevention, evaluation, quality standards and quality assurance. IPREV also includes a database of evaluation tools, integrates the online course Introduction to evidence-based prevention (INEP) and the national System for recording and monitoring prevention activities in schools (SEPA).

Based on the feedback, materials on current topics in drug abuse prevention were developed (HHC, kratom, nicotine pouches, psychoactive drugs). Topics such as suicide prevention, sleep hygiene and digital wellbeing were developed in the context of mental health support. In addition, a methodology was developed to support the implementation of the school’s prevention plan and the selection of quality and safe prevention programmes provided by external providers.

Along with the web platform, social networks, Facebook and Instagram, have been created to build a community and reach out to other potential interested parties. The content of social media posts is customised to the community. Based on the analysis, it was found that Instagram followers are of younger age, including students. The posts are therefore mainly directed towards mental health related topics. On Facebook there is a community of educators and prevention professionals and posts are mainly related to upcoming webinars and conferences, news on the platform and education.

The pilot operation of the platform has shown its importance in the domestic prevention system and infrastructure. The support of users and their participation in the creation of content prove that such a project has its place and value. A number of activities are planned for the next year. The platform will serve as a dissemination channel for the results of projects focused on prevention and quality standards. The content is going to be developed with regard to the current needs of practice, the collaboration with practitioners is planned to be extended and some parts of the platform are going to be translated into English so that it can serve as a source of evidence-based information for professionals. An evaluation study of the implementation of the project activities in practice is also planned.

The pilot operation was launched in the autumn of 2022 and the platform was created thanks to the financial support of the Prague City Hall and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. It is operated and developed by the team of the Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital in Prague in cooperation with a consortium of organisations.

Elizabeth Nováková | Charles University, First Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

E-mail | elizabeth [dot] novakova [at] lf1 [dot] cuni [dot] cz

Renáta Habiňáková | Charles University, First Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

E-mail | renata [dot] habinakova [at] lf1 [dot] cuni [dot] cz