MENTAL HEALTH IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Extension activities

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.159492423013

• Palavras-chave: Mental health, emotions, collective health.

• Keywords: Mental health, emotions, collective health.

• Abstract:

  PROBLEM CHARACTERIZATION: It is common knowledge that there is an increase in cases and records of psychological problems in all age groups in society, from childhood to old age. These problems can be, for example, depression, excessive anxiety, attention deficit disorders and bipolarity. With this in mind, within the practical scenario of the Extension Curricularization Activities (ACEX's), the Ipiranga Basic Health Unit in Curitiba was visited in order to learn about the environment that serves as an entry point for the SUS user, to which the search was reported of the health service by students at the João Mazzarotto state school, which is located opposite the aforementioned UBS, after suicide attempts or reporting other psychological difficulties. Therefore, the need to work on mental health with adolescents at this school was noted, aiming to clarify some basic concepts and present the ways they can seek to resolve such situations before they are irreversible. DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIENCE: to serve as many students as possible within one hour available for work, with the focus being on covering all classes from 6th to 9th grade in the afternoon. Between 1 and 2 students in the group were separated so that we could work simultaneously in all classes, serving 150 students in total. Aiming to focus on a quality of mental health without bringing possible mental triggers to teenagers, it was chosen to present the most well-known emotions of everyday life, for this the film “Inside Out” served as an initial instrument to introduce emotions such as sadness, anger, joy, disgust and fear, which are common to exist and feel, which for a teenager aged 11 to 17 can be interpreted as a burden beyond the ordinary, without mentioning the hormonal action present in them. It is known that in this age range, teenagers go from being a child to a real teenager, which made it necessary for us to adapt the presentation for each class, being a little subtler with the 6th and 7th year classes, and even more subtly, more realistic with 8th and 9th grade. The presentation consisted of a slideshow with an excerpt from the film presenting emotions and a teaching about them, in addition to presenting ways to deal with such emotions. After that, a space was opened for direct questions on the topic and then a game of questions with bullets so that students could establish the concepts and solutions presented there. RESULTS ACHIEVED: certainly, a work on mental health involving adolescents does not present a consistent result on the spot, however the school's response to the work and the quick reaction of the students after the presentation showed a positive opinion that will indeed be notable upon returning to UBS Ipiranga and also to the João Mazzarotto school itself.

   Although the results are sought after the work, even before carrying it out, we obtained a clear answer to be commented on: There was a teenager in a serious anxiety attack during class time, unable to keep up with her classmates, but she was able to be reassured by a member of the group and then return to the classroom with her classmates and still participate in the presentation, showing how Support can and could be effective from start to finish, with results still to come. RECOMMENDATION: Extension Curricularization Activities (ACEX's) are open doors for academics from the beginning to the end of the course, which allow access to experiences that can form the character of the professional that is being built throughout the course, experiences that cannot be learned in the classroom only in theories. As future health agents, this contact with situations that can contribute to collective health is essential, in addition to being the first step towards acting as health agents and seeing results, in this case for the next professionals, fathers and mothers who will graduate, teenagers of the state education network. Some situations may seem insignificant in light of all the current public health problems, but saving one of these teenagers, or perhaps all of them, from irreversible problems is transformative.