Promotion of children’s mental health: nurses’ contributions

This was an integrative review using PubMed, B-On, and CINAHL databases using the following keywords “health promotion”, “mental health, “child”, “nursing”, or “role of nursing” or “pediatric nursing” or “primary nursing care”, with combination of Boolean operators “AND” and “OR”. Full-text articles published in Portuguese and English within 10 years were included, after application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. A qualitative analysis with construction of three categories were included.

Results

We included 15 articles describing nursing interventions for children and adolescents at school, for family and community. The majority of interventions were approach at school with an emphasis on promotion of resilience and a healthy behavior.

Conclusion

The analyzed studies showed the importance of nurses to promote children’s mental health in mental health education programs, sensibilization and support to psychoaffective, biologic and social needs. A large variety of interventions organized and developed by nurses were observed at school, with families and as well as in the interrelationship with community.

Health promotion; Mental health; Child; Pediatric nursing; Primary health care

Nursing interventions at school	Level of evidence
Early detection mental health problems of children and adolescents, encouraging them to talk more about their feelings.	VI⁽¹⁵⁾VII^(16,17)I
Promote development of emotional resilience of children and adolescents: Encouraging them to have a positive thinking, be optimist, embrace challenges, and make something to help others, to play and develop creativity, to promote self-esteem and self-efficacy, to develop good relationships and empathy between partners, and to explore opportunities for self-discovering, problem-solving, and learning with them in order to develop a sense of correctness and wrongness.	VI⁽¹⁵⁾VII^(11,18,19)
Promote and encourage healthy eating, reduction of obesity, good night’s sleep and exercise regularly.	V^(10,20)VII^(17,18)
Promote health and emotional well-being by empowering participation within the community, improving the social inclusion and reducing the stigma associated with mental health problems.	VII^(18,21)
Promote health and emotional well-being of all young men and boys, contributing for development of policies and sensible practices for difference needs based on gender.	VII⁽²²⁾
Promote cognitive, historical, cultural, and experimental knowledge of students recognizing youth as knowledgeable, inviting them to share their option and test ideas in supportive environment.	VII⁽¹⁹⁾
Create opportunities for youths to be proactive and to guarantee mental health and well-being, amplifying their repertoire of positive skills that can generate solutions to face emotional and stressful situations.	V⁽¹⁰⁾VII⁽¹⁹⁾
Encourage youth to be unify as a group and establish ways to work together with teachers and community.	VII⁽¹⁹⁾
Involve them in activities in which they feel heard and valued, construct self-confidence, improve self-care and the care to others.	VII^(17,19)
Promote an autogenic approach – well-being cultivation based on explorations of happiness and development of protective factors, not only to avoid risks.	VII⁽¹⁹⁾
Encourage them to leave their comfort zone with confidence to explore new areas. Empower students to develop internal locus of control and self-confidence to face challenges, and the will to consider new or divergent ideas, and to take responsibility to their own behavior.	VII⁽¹⁹⁾
Give support to healthy behaviors, safety and positive school environment, involvement with family and community at school.	V⁽²⁰⁾VII⁽²³⁾
Teach social-emotional skills for children and adolescents.	V⁽¹⁰⁾VII⁽²⁴⁾
Encourage emotional well-being of youth based on cognitive-behavioral therapy: counseling about self-care strategies, help to increase exercise and to find social support, and also monitor the impact of changes in life style.	VI⁽¹⁵⁾
Provide short intervention for personal hygiene, dental care, healthy eating, life style, sleeping and routines.	VII^(17,25)
Provide information, support and counseling to young people through social media such as Facebook or Twitter.	VII⁽¹⁷⁾
Nursing interventions with the family
Identify health and development problems of children (such as learning difficulties), safety (such as negligence of parents), and self-sufficiency economy of parents to provide help as earliest as possible.	VII⁽²¹⁾
Encourage good health and well-being throughout life, beginning in pregnancy, and including home visiting early in pregnancy up to two years of age, and planning of health needs.	VII^(21,24,26)
Give support to parents during crisis and help them to establish a relationship and healthy environmental in which the children can growth.	VII⁽¹¹⁾
Encourage mothers to breastfeeding.	VII⁽²¹⁾
Offer help parents to develop a strong bonding with children.⁽²⁰⁾Support relationships between parents and children, and provide individualized approach for the need of each family.	VII^(17,24,26)
Delivery person-centered care and directed for development of positive relations mother-baby.	VII⁽²⁶⁾
Provide support to families’ needs to help them to create a more positive imaging of parents and environmental that they provide to raise and develop children.	VII⁽²⁴⁾
Provide counseling of strategies to promote positive thinking among mothers to improve their own mental health and reduce risk of depressions and chronic stressors in order to avoid such impacts on children.	VII⁽²⁴⁾
Provide protection for children with severe disease by screening and immunization.	VII⁽²¹⁾
Referral to health care of mothers, and children, families with low economic resources.	VII⁽²¹⁾
Educate parents to create a better life for their children and for themselves.	VII⁽²⁶⁾
Nursing interventions in the community
Assess social inequalities and adequate interventions to promote health equity, developing partnerships with other sectors. Participation in the development of policies for inclusion of vulnerable groups.	VII⁽²⁶⁾
Establish relationship with schools, assume an active leadership role by providing nursing support and management supervision.	VII^(17,23)
Provide health support and well-being to mobile units: vaccination, education session for health about topics such as alcohol and smoking, healthy eating, physical exercise, and hand hygiene.	VII⁽¹⁷⁾
Home visiting and family education.	V⁽¹⁰⁾VII⁽²⁴⁾
Recommendation for exposure to green areas – gardens, parks, forests, open spaces, therapeutic garden, encountering with nature, walks or runs.	V⁽²⁷⁾

Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo R. Napoleão de Barros, 754, 04024-002 São Paulo - SP/Brasil, Tel./Fax: (55 11) 5576 4430 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: actapaulista@unifesp.br

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[1] Corresponding author Ernestina Maria Veríssimo Batoca da Silva E-mail: ernestinabatoca@gmail.com