About us
15%
15%
of children and young people are diagnosed with a mental health disorder before they turn 18. The increasing demand puts pressure on both the municipal and the regional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
Background for Best for Us
Mental health problems and disorders are a serious social issue in Denmark. During the last 10 years, the number of children and young people who are in contact with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services has increased by more than 50%. Furthermore, 15% of all children and young people are diagnosed with a mental disorder before they turn 18 years.
This puts pressure on mental health services across municipalities and regional services, and families are often left with the impression that the help provided for their children and adolescents arrives too late or that they are not given the right kind of help. Ultimately, this has extensive human consequences as well as socioeconomic after-effects.
Research from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Aalborg University Hospital has shown that more than half of the children and young people who are referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services have experienced symptoms of mental health problems for more than 5 years before being referred. Most parents experience that it is difficult to navigate the system and that the relevant offers regarding help and support are not available to their child.
In the publication Strengthening Mental Health Care: Recommendations for a 10-year action plan in Denmark from 2022, the Danish Health Authorities emphasize that the help currently offered is characterized by a lack of coordination and cooperation, insufficient quality, and inadequate interventions.
The aim of Best for Us
The objective is that Best for Us will lead to better access to treatment of a higher quality with a larger effect on children and young people´s well-being and daily functioning.
Best for Us is targeted at children and young people with a need for treatment due to their mental health problems.
The different components of Best for Us must be applicable across mental health issues and diagnoses, in a way so Best for Us contributes to a collective improvement to the treatment of children and young people with mental health problems and mental disorders.
Overall the aim of Best for Us is to increase equality in the access to child and adolescent mental health assessment, treatment, and develop more suitable interventions for children, adolescents, and their families.
To succeed with the vision of improving access, increasing the quality of care, and improving the outcomes for children and young people with mental health problems and mental disorders, Best for Us will focus on activities aimed at:
- Improving cross-sector coordination of care and strengthened coordination of the efforts for children and young people with mental health problems and mental disorders
- Developing family-focused assessment and treatment within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
- Implementing evidence-based digital tools within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
- Competence building of professionals across sectors
Co-creation involving children, adolescents, their parents, and professionals across general practitioners, municipalities, and within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services is a guiding principle within Best for Us.
The ambition of Best for Us is continuous collaboration with the other regions in Denmark along with national stakeholders to ensure scalability and the potential for nationwide implementation of Best for Us after the project period.
The organization of Best for Us
Best for Us is anchored in Psychiatry in the North Denmark Region.
The municipalities of Aalborg, Hjørring, Mariagerfjord, and Thisted are collaborators on the project.
The project will be carried out in close collaboration with partners the departments of the Danish Center for Health Service Research, Laboratory for Welfare Technology – Digital Health & Rehabilitation, and PSYCHÈ at Aalborg University.
Best for Us is organized into seven work packages, all intercorrelated and mutually supportive of the two general tracks within the project:
1) Improving the cohesiveness of efforts and treatments for children and young people with mental health problems and mental disorders.
2) Improved and timely treatment within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services – and in better time.
Best for Us has collaborators from the other regions on different aspects of the project.
Best for Us wants to work in close collaboration with other relevant stakeholders nationally, to expand the project beyond the Region of Northern Denmark after the project period.
A national and an international advisory board for Best for Us has been established. These are meant to ensure that the Best for Us project is based on the best existing knowledge within the field and that Best for Us collaborates with other relevant initiatives in Denmark that target children and young people with mental health problems and mental disorders.
Financing
Best for Us is a 5-year project, supported by up to 150 million DKK from the Novo Nordic Foundation and 30 million DKK from The Obel Family Foundation.
Furthermore, the Lundbeck Foundation contributes with a grant of an additional 11,6 million DKK for the sub-project “Challenge Young”, a project that will investigate how virtual reality can be applied to the treatment targeted young people with auditory hallucinations.
Arbejdspakker
[EN] Bedst for Os er organiseret i syv arbejdspakker, der er sammenhængende og gensidigt understøttende i forhold til de to overordnede spor i projektet.
- Forbedret sammenhæng i indsatser- og behandling for børn og unge i psykisk mistrivsel eller med psykisk sygdom.
- Mere og bedre behandling i børne- og ungdomspsykiatrien- i tide.