All 10 Co-Researchers and two Researchers from SHARE attended the international youth mental health conference in Copenhagen in September and October. With more than 700 participants from 49 countries, the conference covered a wide range of topics to contribute with new knowledge and ideas on how mental health services can be developed, improved, implemented, and tested in research and innovation projects.
All 10 Co-Researchers and two Researchers from SHARE attended the The 6th International Conference on Youth Mental Health in Copenhagen.
The SHARE team provided five conference presentations, of which four were lead or co-authored by the Co-Researchers. Two Co-Researchers, Laia Gomez Meldahl and Lou Krijger gave an oral presentation of the study reporting on the ideal youth mental health services from the perspectives of youth. All ten Co-Researchers and Petter Viksveen were authors of the presentation.
Petter Viksveen presented the results of a new study providing insight into healthcare professionals- experiences with youth who have a background as asylum seekers and refugees. Studies have shown that up to 50% of these youth suffer from mental health conditions, and the existing healthcare services do not meet their care and support needs. In particular, services are not adapted to their cultural backgrounds. Co-authors were Murad Mustafa (Co-Researcher), Lobna Doudouh (Master in Substance Abuse and Mental Health Work), and Professor Anita Salamonsen (UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare).
The InvolveMENT team also presented three poster presentations: Shared decision-making for adolescents with severe mental illness, a PhD project by Stig Bjønness; User involvement in adolescents’ mental healthcare: an updated systematic review, by Petter Viksveen, Nicole E. Cardenas, Julia Rose Game and Stig Bjønness; and Youth Co-Researchers in mental health research – Experiences from the InvolveMENT project, with Maya Ibenfeldt and Samuel Duerto as lead authors and all Co-Researchers and Petter Viksveen as co-authors.
Co-Researchers reporting from the conference:
“… an incredible experience. Not only was it fantastic to see the work we’d been doing for months - come to life; we got to share it in front of hundreds of others!” (Julia Rose Game)
“… an amazing experience ... It was so great being surrounded by so many like-minded youth and professionals dedicated to changing the face of youth mental health.” (Maren McLean Andvik)
“The highlight for me was the diversity of the participants. Seeing presentations from researchers with backgrounds similar and different to my own has informed how I think about the subject going forward.” (Oliver Cuddeford)