The Helping Adolescents Thrive (HAT) Initiative is a joint WHO-UNICEF effort to strengthen policies and programmes for the mental health of adolescents. More specifically, the efforts made through the Initiative are to promote mental health and prevent mental health conditions. They are also intended to help prevent self-harm and other risk behaviours, such as harmful use of alcohol and drugs, that have a negative impact on the mental  ̶  and physical  ̶  health of young people.

The first components of the HAT package of materials to be released are "Guidelines on promotive and preventive mental health interventions for adolescents" and a Toolkit which provides details on how to implement the above-noted Guidelines and what complementary action is required to support adolescents and their caregivers and to improve the environments in which they live. The Toolkit is accompanied by a Teacher’s Guide and Comic Book that can be used for the planning and facilitation of classroom activities focused on socio-emotional learning.

Additional materials are planned as part of the HAT Initiative and will be available on this page upon release.