Back to search

HELSEVEL-Gode og effektive helse-, omsorgs- og velferdstjenester

Improving mental health services with and for indigenous and ethnic minority youth

Alternative title: Sammen om bedre psykiske helsetjenester for ungdom med bakgrunn som etniske minoriteter og urfolk

Awarded: NOK 14.6 mill.

The InvolveMENT project will adapt digital mental health services to meet the needs of youth with national minority, indigenous and refugee backgrounds. The Norwegian public communication channel ung.no will be adapted to meet the needs of these youth. The main purpose is to support their mental health. Very little is currently known about the mental health and digital health care needs of youth with minority backgrounds. What is the state of their mental health? What are their digital mental health support needs? Are they familiar and satisfied with the communication channel ung.no and the available services? How do they think the services should be adapted to meet their mental health needs? The InvolveMENT project involves youth with national minority, indigenous and refugee backgrounds throughout all phases of the research. We will use questionnaire surveys and interview studies to learn about their experiences and needs. The knowledge will provide a starting point for a collaborative process which will involve youth, health care and social welfare professionals, and representatives from the Norwegian Directorate of Health to adapt ung.no. The adapted services will be tested in a trial to determine if youth with minority backgrounds are satisfied with the service and to ascertain whether it contributes to improve their mental health. The cost-effectiveness and safety of the services will also be tested.

The InvolveMENT collaborative research project will contribute to improve the mental health of youth with national minority, indigenous and refugee backgrounds by meeting their information and personalised mental health needs, using public eHealth services. Digital mental health services are available through the public communication channel ung.no provided by the Norwegian authorities. It facilitates access to quality-ensured information and support services for youth. However, these services have not been adapted to meet the needs of minority youth and no research evidence exists to determine service acceptability, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness or safety. The InvolveMENT research project will apply a co-design process involving youth with national minority, indigenous and refugee backgrounds to develop adapted, culturally sensitive, equitable and sustainable healthcare services. Firstly, we will assess the mental health status and eHealth support needs among under- and unexplored minority groups, using a cohort of 1,500 youth (WP1). Youth from these groups will be interviewed to further explore their perspectives on eHealth services, with a particular focus on the Norwegian public communication channel ung.no (WP2). The knowledge will contribute to a co-design process involving minority youth groups/organisations, the Norwegian Directorate of Health, healthcare providers, and University based research centres (WP3). The strong involvement of youth through co-design processes and as research participants ensures that their needs are at the centre of the research. Changes to the services will be implemented and finally tested through a randomized controlled trial and qualitative study using the Trials within Cohorts design, to assess the use, acceptability, satisfaction, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and safety of the services to meet mental health support needs of youth with national minority, indigenous and refugee backgrounds (WP4).

Publications from Cristin

No publications found

No publications found

No publications found

Funding scheme:

HELSEVEL-Gode og effektive helse-, omsorgs- og velferdstjenester