WHO EMRO - WORLD HEALTH DAY 2001

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Regional winners of schools essay contest on mental health:

Category 10-14 years

Name: Sara Basseiri
Age: 13
School: Malek Se'oud preparatory school
country: Lebanon: see Essay

Category 15-18 years

Name: Mohammad Imtiaz Mubbashar
Age: 17
School: Preparatory school Islamabad
Road ,G-6/3, Islamabad
Country: Pakistan: see Essay

The global school contest for mental health

World Health Day 2001

A global school contest for mental health is being organized on the occasion of World Health Day 2001.

Organizational rules

Schools are an essential element in child development and critical for teaching basic life skills. WHO wishes to engage schools in providing children with a better appreciation of mental health. The consequences of poor mental health can be seen in alcohol and drug abuse, interpersonal violence, school dropout and self-harm, including suicide. Even the youngest of children may be exposed to adult relatives facing these issues. Between 17% and 22 % of adolescents suffer from developmental, emotional or behavioural problems yet fewer than one in five of these young people are currently receiving appropriate treatment.

In 2001, the WHO World Health Day provides a unique opportunity to raise awareness of these issues. The theme of World Health Day devoted to mental health is "Stop exclusion – Dare to care." As early intervention for mental health problems is important , please join with WHO to reach the world’s youth.

DEADLINE - NOT TO BE MISSED!
15 January 2001	Notify WHO about your school's participation
01 February 2001	Submit your school's entry to WHO
07 April 2001	Country and Regional Winners to be announced
16 April 2001	Global winner to be announced

Eligible participants and schools
The WHO school contest is open to students 6-18 yrs in public and private schools world-wide.
Schools wishing to participate in the contest should inform WHO by 15^th January 2001 by sending the registration form to the appropriate WHO Country Office.

Categories by age groups
6 - 9 yrs Drawing Contest
10-14 yrs Essay Contest – 250 words
15-18 yrs Essay Contest – 500 words

Submission of contest entries
Each school should create a jury to select one entry per category. Members of the jury could include the school principal, teachers, parents, health professional with mental health experience, a community member (representative of a mental health or children’s association…)

The entry selected in each school must be submitted to the WHO Country Office by 1^st February 2001 together with information on student’s name, age, school, school address, phone/fax number, teacher’s name.

Winners will be notified through their schools and will be listed on this website

Country Winners One winner per category will be chosen by the WHO Country Offices	Regional Winners One winner per category will be chosen by the six WHO Regional Offices	Global Winners One global winner in each category will be selected by the WHO headquarters in Geneva
Winners will be announced on 7 April 2001		Winners will be announced on 16 April 2001
Each winner will receive a certificate from WHO and a Disney surprise gift mailed to them. Other specific prizes may be awarded on a country by country basis.	Caran d’Ache will provide the classroom of each winner with a supply of art materials such as crayons, coloured pencils, paints/writing instruments (as appropriate for the age group).	The three global winners will be flown to Geneva with one adult guardian for a 3-day-all expense- paid trip in mid-May 2001. The "15-18 category" winner will be invited to read his/her essay to the World Health Assembly, annual gathering of all health ministers of the world. A tour of the Carand’Ache crayon factory in Geneva will be organised for the winners. They will also receive park admission tickets to Disneyland Paris theme park in Marne La Vallée, France at a date of their convenience.

Contest themes
Introducing the contest.
Most of your classmates are healthy and happy individuals. However, there are some children who are not so fortunate and are ill with diseases such as behavioural problem, learning disabilities, brain damage or epilepsy. These children are often teased, isolated and excluded from enjoyable group activities. Such children will obviously feel very hurt not to be a part of the normal group. They need peers' support, their parents' help, their teachers' understanding and the support from the community. The WHO contest may help you think about what it means to have these illnesses and the importance of being in good health, for your body and for your brain.

Age 6-9 yrs: Drawing Contest - students should draw a picture to represent

How would a child who is ill with a brain disorder feel at being different from everyone else? How would you feel about being excluded if you were different? Can a parent or teacher help if a child is upset or teased about being different?

Note to teachers: A short discussion on the points above may help the students to draw about their feelings. The teacher should use examples to show that everyone is different and one person may be particularly different due to a mental or brain illness (mental retardation, learning disability, epilepsy, attention-deficit disorder, etc.). The teacher should emphasises the importance of including all children in the group.

Age 11-14 yrs: Essay Contest - The students should write a essay of up to 250 words with the title

Can you explain why some people act differently, get upset more easily, do not make friends, or cannot learn the way you do? How do you deal with another person who can’t change/adapt? Identify the reasons that people become depressed and/or may wish to hurt themselves or another. Can you identify what they are feeling? Can you help a friend in this situation?

Note to teachers: It could be expected that in this age range the children will have had an experience with a person suffering from mental illness. It should be recognised that because of family background, religion or community issues, the willingness to talk about it may vary greatly.

Age 15-18 yrs: Essay Contest - The students should write a essay of up to 500 words with the title:

What do I know about a mentally ill person? Students should describe what they understand about mental or brain illnesses through any personal experience with someone having one of the following disorders (epilepsy, mental retardation, schizophrenia (severe mental illness), depression, alcohol/drug abuse or Alzheimer’s (dementia of old age)), or through examples of what they have learned in school or from television. How do they feel about this person and their experience with them? What ways can a person with mental illness be helped? What more would they like to know but can’t find out?

Note to teachers: Note that emphasis for this essay should be on students experience not on library research. As a follow-up lesson, you may wish to hold a discussion regarding common misconceptions about mental illness and brain disorders. You can obtain the World Health Day brochure for this purpose from the local WHO office.

Teachers' guide
The objective of the school mental health contest is to provide an opportunity for youth to discuss their understanding of mental health and mental/brain disorders in a manner conducive to free expression of their ideas and feelings. The emphasis is on their experience with others in their community, school or home who have mental illness or brain disease. Teachers should emphasise that everyone can experience mental illness at some point in their lives. The intent of the lesson should not be to provide in-depth discussion of various disorders.

Experience suggests that the most meaningful way to teach about mental illness and to reduce the associated stigma is to use examples drawn from general health or the general experience of youth to illustrate the difficulties of integrating people who appear or behave differently. To this end the "contest" seeks to foster an understanding of each youngster’s personal involvement with or relation with a person having a form of mental illness.

A helpful exercise that could accompany the "contest" would be a class discussion about what is meant by mental illness or brain disease and/or a discussion of personal experiences with individuals who are mentally ill. Guest speakers, for instance mental health professionals, might come to a class to lead a discussion. In some communities there are also "self-help" groups who could provide speakers.

In leading any discussion it will be important to give the youngsters the opportunity to fully discuss their experience. However, if it is noted that a youngster appears upset as a result of the discussion or goes too far in the discussion you should gently bring an end to the discussion or state that it will be continued later.

In introducing the "contest" you can read the simple themes to the students. You can encourage the students to be creative and to focus on how they would respond to a situation, not how they feel others would want them to respond. For a youngster to express conflict about how to deal with a mentally ill person or how uncomfortable they may have initially felt is perfectly acceptable. It is how the youngster came to be more accepting or worked out a particular problem that is important.

The emphasis in the essay parts of the "contest" is not on providing detailed scientific knowledge of the illnesses to be discussed. The emphasis is on how the youngster experienced caring and/or reduced exclusion.

For the younger children, especially those who are doing the drawings, it is important to provide a setting for being creative. They can try to express a story through images, show a family scene, draw a person or persons, show the relationship between individuals. Free expression should be encouraged.

It would be good at the end when the pictures or the essays are collected to take a brief time to reflect on what the students have learned from the exercise. In the end, please state to the students that the objective of the "contest" has been for them to become advocates for good mental health; for the inclusion of those with mental illness and brain disorders in the school and the community through understanding, respect and support; and to learn more about mental illness as they grow and have the opportunity to help others.
The contest is also meant to encourage and inspire schools themselves to reinforce or initiate new efforts for promoting mental health education in the school health curriculum.

A new multi-agency initiative "FRESH-Focusing Resources on Effective School Health" has been launched in April 2000 to ensure implementation of effective school health, hygiene and nutrition as one of the major components of Education for All.

Registration Form
The following school informs WHO that it will participate in the Global School Contest for Mental Health.

Conditions of participation
By submitting this form the school indicates its participation in the WHO Global School Contest for Mental Health and acknowledges that it has read and accepted the conditions of participation.

By submitting an essay/drawing for consideration, the school and individual student agree to the following:

WHO cannot be held responsible for any contest entries that do not arrive at the appropriate WHO Country Office within the specified deadlines.
WHO is authorised to use, translate, print, display and distribute in any manner the essays and drawings that are submitted.
WHO is permitted to publish the story with reference to the author’s name.
WHO reserves the right to publish the story at any future time, or not to publish it at all.
No drawings or essays will be returned to the school or individual in question.
Being selected as a contest winner does not convey any rights to the school or individual to represent themselves as an official of WHO in any manner.
WHO’s decisions concerning selection of winners are not subject to appeal.

The following information must be attached to each contest entry. Any submission without the required information will not be accepted.

* In case of doubt, send by Fax: +41 22 791 4160 to Liaison Officer, World Health Day 2001WHO-Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence, Avenue Appia 20, CH-1211 Geneva 27.
Your participation form will be routed to the appropriate WHO Country Office.

Corporate supporters
of The Global School Contest on Mental Health are
Caran d’Ache of Switzerland
and the Walt Disney Company (Europe) S.A.

The following individuals, agencies and associations have been instrumental in disseminating contest documents or providing national level organization of the school contest: