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Description
The project aims at improving the mental health of children and youth ( 11-19 years) in the city of Brno by means of creating a program that includes early detection, early support, and afterward care following a hospitalization. The transfer of knowledge from the Norwegian partner will lead to an improved ability of detection of the developing mental health difficulties in schools and earlier connection of the children and youth with the social-medical Early Support Team. The team will provide early support grounded in the approach of Open Dialogue (OD) in schools and a selected inpatient facility. The early detection in schools will take place by means of a collaborating network of educational professionals and a targeted support offer in the form of a comic booklet. The team will actively cooperate with the children/youth department of the Psychiatric Clinic. By means of network meetings, the team will connect to admitted children and youth at the inpatient ward and their relatives in order to support the recovery process after being released from the ward. Thanks to the training and consultations with the Norwegian partner, the competencies of the Early Support Team members in Open Dialogue (OD) will be strengthened. OD puts emphasis on the flexible and intensive support for both the person in crisis and her close ones. It aims at strengthening natural sources of mutual support that are present in families and broader communities. The team will cooperate with other medical and social services and educational organizations while using the obtained skills in network meetings and OD to directly support children and youth. By means of the program, the mental health of children and youth will be strengthened which will allow them a higher quality of life, maintain important social contacts, finish education, and/or find a meaningful role in society. Therefore the program will contribute to lowering the risk of chronification of mental health difficulties.
Summary of project results
The project was needed because it responded to changes taking place in the field of mental health in children and adolescents. Adolescent mental health is a big topic of the time. Research in the Czech Republic (Uhlíř, 2021, Pediatrics for Practice) has led to the finding that mental ill health in children and adolescents worsened during and after the CV 19 pandemic (similarly, Bínová, Havelka, 2021, Psychiatry for Practice). The most recent output from the National Institute of Mental Health (2023) yielded findings from a screening survey that 40% of children in grade 9 showed signs of depression and 30% of anxiety. Thus, the project has responded to a timely need in the society. We were able to address it. The big challenge was the change of team leader in the middle of the project and other staff changes which were well managed by the team.
Thanks to the activities of the project, a specific programme consisting of early detection, early intervention and follow-up support after hospitalisation has been developed. Within the framework of the programme we provided intensive mental health support to 63 children and adolescents and their 55 relatives. We implemented 22 hours training and consultation from an expert recommended by the Norwegian partner for educational, counselling, health and social workers needed to organise network meetings as an important element to improve children and adolescents'' access to early support. A total of 21 educational and health workers participated in the workshops and consultation sessions. We implemented 68 hours training and consultation from an expert recommended by the Norwegian partner for the Early Support Team staff, which led to more effective support for children and adolescents and their relatives. 7 Early Support Team workers received training. The Early Support Team offered the network meetings as a means of cooperation to other collaborating entities such as OSPOD (Authority for Social and Legal Protection of Children), low threshold clubs for children and youth, paedopsychiatric and psychiatric outpatient clinics, paediatricians, family counselling centres and other stakeholders. We published and disseminated „Isaac in Distress“ comics to collaborating schools, which raised awareness of mental health support options. The project ultimately engaged 8 schools (4 primary schools, 4 secondary schools) and increased awareness in 3 more primary schools and 2 secondary schools. We implemented a successful FB awareness campaign on ne.JSEM cv.OK, (increase from 873 to 38,199 views of posts, traffic from 366 to 11,944). We made the project visible to paedopsychiatrists and psychiatrists and through active outreach by the Early Support Team, awareness of the help available was raised and access to specialist help improved.
The project brought the necessary support to the project users, which were both children and adolescents with mental health problems (63 people) and their relatives (55 people), as well as to other professionals who became part of the collaborative network. Awareness of the opportunity to ask for support was raised in the 13 collaborating schools. There was an increase in awareness and information about mental health due to FB followership of ne.JSEM cv.OK. There was an increase in professional competencies for team members and professionals from the collaborative network, with 73.68% of training participants reporting an improvement in recognizing situations where they need to reach out to professionals to manage a crisis, and 68.42% of participants reporting an improvement in their idea of which professionals they would reach out to. Through active and intensive support and a collaborative network of professionals, the processes needed to detect the development of mental illness early and offer the necessary outreach and outpatient support have become more efficient. There has also been validation of the transfer of the Open Dialogue approach to the Czech environment, and this has helped to develop the Open Dialogue approach within educational, health and social services.
Summary of bilateral results
The partner university NTNU provided an expert for the networking meetings. This expert recommended by the Norwegian partner was important for his wide experience from several countries and could therefore bring different perspectives on the implementation of the Open Dialogue approach in different cultural environments.At the same time he helped to expand the team''s professional practical competences. The expert recommended by the Norwegian partner participated in the planning and implementation of project activities such as training and consultations with Early Support Team staff and pedagogical and healthcare professionals and embedding the Open Dialogue approach in the organization. He also supervised the creation of a short educational material for pedagogical, counseling and healthcare professionals about networking meetings.