Evaluation of School Mental Health Promotion Program: A Qualitative Study

Background: Due to the need to identify problems related to mental health among students and their proper management by offering specialized medical services to them, recently a relevant research project has been fully implemented in schools of all grades in Iran. Since the only way to measure the effectiveness and find the strengths and weakness of a program is to evaluate it, the present study aims to monitor and evaluate the mentioned project in order to improve the quality of project implementation, identify defects and shortcomings and upgrade the existing system. Methods: The present study was a qualitative study using conventional content analysis that used a semi-structured in-depth interview to obtain information from group of stakeholders. Selected instructors, teachers, principals and designers of the School Mental Health Promotion Program were the target of the study. Results: The findings of the present study were presented in four categories of program strengths, program weaknesses, factors preventing achievement of program objectives and recommendations for program improvement. It is to be noted that 14 subcategories were also devised, and finally, 50 codes were extracted. The overall results of the evaluation of the School Mental Health Program showed its effectiveness. Conclusions: The new and practical model of School Mental Health Program has opened a new perspective to school-based interventions. However, the expectation of full implementation and continuation of this program in the short term and with limited resources does not seem very realistic because making change is often challenging and fraught with problems and obstacles.