About the Kort project

Background

Between 15-20% of Norwegian youth experience mental health difficulties and this number is rising. Municipalities have the main responsibility for preventive and protective mental health services.

This requires effective intervention practices in the frontline services. The school helath services are in a unique position to reach all youth and the potential for increased use of evidence-based practices in this context is great. In the Kort project, we seek to realize this potential by developing and testing an effective, research-informed intervention with and for youth and school health practitioners.

The Kort project is based on a national survey of how frontline health personnel in Norwegian municipalities work with adolescent mental health. We found that most young people who contact the school health services have emotional difficulties, and that school nurses want tailoredtools to meet this need.

To address this need, we conducted two systematic reviews of effective interventions for children and youth to identify common practices that often have positive effects across problem areas. We call these common elements. In Kort, we have selected five common elements that can help young people to deal with intense or painful emotions in a positive way.

Prototypes of these five common elements were co-developed with youth, school nurses and psychologists to tailor them to the school health context and to use words and language that works well for everyone. The elements were then tested in a pilot trial to investigate if it was suitable, feasible, and appropriate for school nurses and youth. The elements were then revised and we are currently testing their effect on youth mental health and well-being in a nation-wide randomized controlled trial.