Youth mental health
Thanks to generous funding, our youth mental health pilot programme known as STEPS-A was a huge success with over 263 students benefiting across both North and West Auckland. The programme delivered in intermediate schools, supported young people at a critical stage of development. This initiative taught practical tools and essential skills over 30 weeks to help them manage their mental wellbeing, build resilience, and thrive both in and out of the classroom. The programme has been evaluated by AUT researchers and showed a marked improvement in mental wellbeing for the young people involved. With your support, we're helping to create a future where every young person feels empowered, supported, and capable of reaching their full potential.
STEPS – A Youth Mental Health Programme success!
When Well Foundation was asked to support improved Youth Mental Health in West and North Auckland, we were thrilled to come onboard to help facilitate this important work.
STEPS-A (Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents) is a social and emotional skills, evidence-based, training programme for intermediate school age rangatahi (children) who may be at risk of developing, or already be experiencing, mental health problems.
With generous support from our community partners; The Trusts, ProCare, Henderson Rotary, Downtown Rotary and The Lottery Grant Board, STEPS – A rolled out across 17 Intermediate schools.
Schools were provided with expert clinicians from Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand’s Marinoto Child and Youth Mental Health Services to co-train with teachers for the first year. This allowed teachers to watch and learn from trained mental health clinicians experienced in DBT and gain the confidence to run the programme independently.
The programme ran for 30 weeks at each school, from 2022- 2024.
“It will help me deal with complicated situations that I wouldn’t know how to deal with without the course. I can deal with problems in a more responsible way.”
— Mienki, 12 years old, West, Auckland
