Mental distress of young people has increased globally due to climate change, pandemic, and increased tensions. In parallel, specialized mental health services for the young in Finland have been increasingly overloaded. An emphasis towards efficient treatment in primary level health and welfare services is part of the national mental health policy strategy and an ongoing health care system reform.
In the IMAGINE-consortium, the goal is equal access to effective low-threshold mental health services and thus, improved transition into adulthood and inclusion of the young in the society despite mental distress.
Our research will focus on adaption and implementation of four promising brief psychosocial mental health interventions. These interventions are:
- Interpersonal Counselling for adolescents (IPC-A),
- a group intervention to promote social connectedness and to decrease the risk for loneliness at the educational setting (G4H),
- a developmentally informed group cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety (DOCT-SAD)
- a compassion-focused intervention in virtual reality for the young in the reform schools or correctional setting (VR-CFT).
We will collect and analyze data on the implementation, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of these four psycho-social interventions. We will use cutting edge quantitative and qualitative research methods, e.g., mixed-model regression and ethnographic methods.
Societal outcomes include structured guidelines and tools for several stakeholders and novel psychosocial interventions for educational, primary care, and correctional settings.