About the project

Currently, Mental health is an important topic in European and non-European countries. Experience and research results have confirmed that students, teachers and citizens do not have a sufficiently developed awareness of well-being or the syndrome of learned helplessness. This syndrome arises after we interpret multiple unsuccessful attempts as unchangeable and begin to believe that we are not capable or worthy of success. We are convinced that any effort will not help us and therefore we give up. We stop being active, we withdraw into the background, we do not advance. Powerlessness is manifested by passivity, reluctance to try, bad mood, disturbed interpersonal relationships, low self-esteem, bad self-image.

The syndrome of learned helplessness also affects children with SEN, children from a socially weak/unstimulating environment, and children with behavioural disorders. However, this problem may concern not only the majority environment, but also children from excluded communities, in underdeveloped regions, who then face generational poverty.

Although we know about these problems, we do not deal with them enough and education should start already in primary schools. The situation is the same in the Czech Republic and in Spain.

To alleviate this difference, from November 1, 2024, the Expol pedagogy publishing house in Bratislava, in partnership with universities of international reputation in Slovakia and Spain and with primary schools in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Spain, began to implement the international project PROWELL – support of well-being and mental health for pupils and primary education teachers through innovative preventive and intervention programs for primary schools.

The project focuses mainly on supporting teachers of lower secondary education in the field of mental health of pupils and teachers. The project is innovative because it aims to combine different methods to strengthen the profile of the teaching profession in an attempt to change the attitude towards the given topic.