The Gatehouse Project: A multi-level integrated approach to promoting well-being in schools

The Gatehouse Project in Australia made a key contribution to the repositioning of emotional and behavioural wellbeing from a welfare and health education concern, to a whole school concern fundamentally integrated into core school programmes, practices, and structures. The main objectives of the intervention were to increase levels of emotional wellbeing and reduce rates of substance use. The project design and intervention strategies were grounded in an understanding of both risk and protective factors common to a range of health and behavioural problems. Implementation was based on an understanding of school change and school improvement processes. This chapter describes the Gatehouse Project intervention and presents the results from the cluster-randomized, controlled-trial evaluation. It discusses the development, implementation, and evaluation of complex school-based interventions.