Background:~Young person's undergoing training in the health or social services sector are confronted with issues such as dying, illness and severe personal tragedies while they are still in the process of their own development. This can have serious effects on their mental health. During this time, vocational school is a central part of young persons' lives. The YouCoMent project will initiate a sustainable promotion and maintenance of mental health and thus preventively counteract the development of mental health conditions.~In order to meet the special challenges of vocational schools in the health sector, this study pursues the following objectives:~To assess the current state of mental health of young persons at the educational centre.~To identify individual risk and protective factors for the mental health of young persons.~Methods:~This study is the first part of the YouCoMent project, which will be carried out at the education centre for health and care professions in St. Gallen (BZGS), Switzerland between 2023 and 2026.It has approx. 150 educators. The number of trainees in basic training is about 2800.~Every person will be asked through the BZGS internal E-Mail distribution lists to participate. Beforehand, between 20 and 24 January 2023. Data collection will be conducted on T1: 26 January 2023 and T2: 24 January 2025. Participation in the study is voluntary. The data collection is going to be carried out using a self-administered online questionnaire. Data collection will be conducted in anonymous form.~The quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive and, where appropriate, exploratory statistics, as well as analysed with statistical software (SPSS). The statistical analyses are carried out by researchers at the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland in St. Gallen.
The aim of the present study is to assess the current state of mental health of educators and young persons at the education centre for health and care professions in St. Gallen (BZGS) by conducting screening instruments. Furthermore, the investigators aim to identify risk and protective factors for the mental health of vocational trainees in health and care professions.~These results are both essential for further research and educational practice. Moreover, results may maximise the chances of creating in future meaningful intervention for young persons in this specific setting.