Abstract:

The demand for psychology services in higher education contexts has increased, appearing related to the challenges and difficulties inherent to the academic journey. This work presents and systematizes the components of a psychological intervention program - Mentoring the Future, and systematizes its impact on the academic and emotional development of Higher Education students. The objective of this psychological intervention program is to promote adaptation and academic success, providing support and guidance, resources and experiences, promoting socio-emotional skills and promoting personal and professional development, encouraging self-confidence and self-efficacy and providing support networks. Mentees achieve rapid consolidation of knowledge and professional progression, better socialization and relationship networks. They feel more connected to the organization, are more satisfied with their career, and have greater self-efficacy, reducing stress and job avoidance. Practices such as mentoring have been shown in scientific literature to be highly effective, showing positive results in various interventions. To build this program, the Stepped Care methodology was used. Stepped Care is a system of delivering and monitoring mental health treatment so that the most effective, yet least resource intensive treatment, is delivered first, only “stepping up” to intensive / specialist services as required and depending on the level of patient distress or need. Stepped care provides a framework for the care of individuals with significant mental health concerns that uses limited resources to their greatest effect on a population basis. Stepped care requires treatments of differing intensity. Stepped interventions offer a variety of treatment options to match the intensity of the patient’s presenting problem as well as potential patient preference. Stepped care models provide information to aid clinicians in decision making regarding selection of treatment strategies that are most appropriate for an individual client. The psychological intervention program, presented and discussed in this work - Mentoring the Future, aimed to provide students with the health care they need in the most appropriate form and degree, with the following assumptions: corresponding to the needs and specificities of psychological interventions, finding the ideal level of intervention in which it depends on monitoring the results of the interventions made available; transition to higher level interventions, ensuring the cost-effectiveness of the care provided. The use of SWOT analysis was carried out with each student, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each individual, as well as the opportunities and barriers that do not depend on this individual. The evaluation of this program includes monthly meetings and filling out questionnaires.

Keywords:

Psychology services, academic and emotional development, higher education, stepped care methodology.