On Friday 25 November, a conference with the theme Understanding Mental Health and Well Being of Students was held at the Catholic Institute in Floriana. This international conference was organized under the auspices of the Ambassador of Malta to Estonia and Finland Kenneth Vella and was officially opened by President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.

The main speaker was the Estonian Expert Kadri Haljas. The Malta Independent was also present for the conference and met Haljas with whom we have discussed various themes, amongst which the mental health of children, the education system in Estonia and the popular resource Triumf Health which will also be introduced in annumber of schools in Malta in the coming weeks. 

Why is it important that we take care of the mental wellbeing of our children ? 

Children's mental health crisis has been a critical global problem for years. To make matters worse, in recent years, we have experienced the negative impact of COVID followed by the war and economic downturn one after another without any break. Dealing with these kind of stressors is not easy. And children are not born resilient, however, they are born with the capacity to become resilient. We are in fact all striving to be resilient. Building mental health management skills requires attention, otherwise this kind of societal uncertainty might negatively impact children up to a point of feeling hopeless. And hopelessness can lead to very unfortunate events if left unattended. 

The reality is that we'll never have enough psychologists to address the growing needs of children. Our opportunity is to innovate to increase access and improve engagement with mental health. Furthermore, traditional psychological support is expensive and difficult to scale. But we can use  technology to improve mental health in a scalable way.

What is Estonia doing in this regard ?

Estonian students rank first in Europe based on PISA results. We call ourselves the education nation and work towards enabling children to reach their potential. But of course, there is always room for improvement in the educational system and public-private partnership works really well in Estonia. Estonia, EdTech Estonia specifically, provides a unique concept of education innovation where promoted mental wellbeing creates the basis of excellent academic achievement. We believe that supported mental health and wellbeing needs to be in the center of successful education path and integrated across the curriculum for improved academic results. 

Can you explain further what is Triumf Health ?

Triumf Health has developed an evidence-based digital therapeutics platform for children to deliver personalized psychological support through a game environment. It empowers children to take an active role in their own wellbeing. The game guides children through a fun journey through Triumfland to empower them and teach them skills to build resilience. The interactive game environment is used to put theories of emotions, coping, problem-solving, activity-based learning, behavior change techniques and psychotherapeutic methodology to practical use.

Triumf Health and their mobile game has won multiple national and international awards and is used in many European countries. Now, it is also available in Malta! In fact during the conference held in Malta the Estonian experience was shared with educators, policy makers, senior leaders and University students. Triumf Hero game was introduced to key Maltese stakeholders from the educational and mental health sector. The Triumf Hero game is for children aged 7-12 and can be used on any mobile device such as a tablet or a smartphone. More info from https://www.triumf.health/

Who is Kadri Haljas?

Dr Kadri Haljas is the founder and CEO of Triumf Health. Triumf Health has developed an evidence-based digital therapeutics platform for children to deliver personalized psychological support through a game environment. Kadri Haljas holds a PhD degree from the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Medicine. Her academic interests are related to health psychology and the impact of digital technologies on health and wellbeing. Her clinical work experience is in developmental psychology.  Dr Haljas has been advocating the importance of implementing mental health innovations for years in Estonia and globally.  She is also one of the leaders of the Mental Health Innovation Hub, a global center for excellence headquartered in Estonia.