Call for submissions: Good practice examples of interventions, programmes or services for children and young people’s mental health

Type of intervention

Submissions should describe interventions, programmes or services implemented in schools, health facilities or other community settings, that:

• Improve the emotional, behavioural, and/or social functioning and wellbeing of children and young people aged 5 to 24 years through promotion, prevention, early identification, intervention, and/or care and support services
• Are designed to improve outcomes for all children and young people or for those at risk of or experiencing mental health difficulties.
• Are delivered directly to children or adolescents, and/or indirectly via parents/caregivers, health workers, educators, and/or through the environments or systems that support mental health.
• Are delivered by professionals or non-professionals, including peers.  

Examples of interventions, programmes or services include (but are not limited to):

• Individual or group-based psychological interventions delivered in schools, health facilities or other community settings
• Routine health checks that incorporate mental health
• Classroom-based support and accommodations
• Crisis interventions
• Strengthening referral pathways between different types of services (e.g. within or external to schools)
• Promotion and prevention programmes in schools and other environments
• Teacher or parent/caregiver education, information or support programmes
• Mental health care in primary health care (e.g. co-location, consultation, collaborative care models)
• Programmes that integrate mental health with other health priorities such as sexual and reproductive health, HIV prevention, support and care
• Community mental health centres or teams
• One-stop services
• Mental health care in general hospitals
• Early intervention services for psychosis or eating disorders
• Case management
• Crisis services
• Psychosocial rehabilitation
• Mental health programmes in other sectors such as the juvenile justice system 

Standards of care

Submissions should describe how the relevant intervention, programme or service is designed to ensure that specific standards of care are upheld. Important domains for standards for mental health care of children and young people are described in WHO and UNICEF’s Mental health of children and young people: service guidance.

Examples and case studies that can demonstrate emphasis on the following standards will be prioritised:

• Accessible: intervention, programme or service is planned and delivered to eliminate structural and social barriers to care
• Appropriate: intervention, programme or service delivers care that is evidence-based, comprehensive, developmentally appropriate and responds to contextual priorities and the social determinants of mental health in the population served
• Equitable and inclusive: intervention, programme or service provides consistent high-quality care to all children and young people, regardless of their age, developmental stage, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, neurodiversity, geographic location, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, linguistic or political affiliation
• Human rights-based: intervention, programme or service is designed to respect, protect and fulfil children and young people’s human rights, including rights to information, privacy, confidentiality, non-discrimination, non-judgement and respect, inclusion and freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse
• Participatory: children, young people and families are involved in decisions about their own care, and in planning, monitoring and evaluating the intervention, programme or service
• Safe: intervention, programme or service keeps children, young people, caregivers and providers safe from preventable harm

“Good practice” eligibility

To be selected, examples should be considered “good practices”, i.e. they have already been shown to produce positive results and are suitable to be suggested for use by others in other contexts. As such, there is a strong preference for examples which have been evaluated using rigorous research methods and/or for those documenting scaling up approaches in real-life context.

However, in certain instances, such as when there are limited good practice examples identified or when early data from a new approach is convincing, we will consider the inclusion of developing practices which have the potential to become good practices and/or promising practices.

The process

• Submit your example by completing the structured submission form here before 20 January 2026.
• Submissions will be reviewed by the WHO and UNICEF team together with expert partners. All examples that meet eligibility criteria will be stored in a central repository for future reference. The final set of examples to be highlighted will be chosen to ensure diversity across global regions and low-resource settings, age groups and populations, and the full range of interventions for children and young people’s mental health.
• If your example is selected, you will collaborate with the WHO and UNICEF team to prepare a concise, standardised summary of your submission.
• Selected good practice examples will be featured in the planned guidance and/or online resource. All contributors will be clearly acknowledged.

We thank you in advance for your collaboration.