21.9 million SEK awarded child and adolescent mental health research

The Swedish Research Council has granted the research unit CHILD at Jönköping University 21.9 million SEK for the research program “Mental health and participation in habilitation services for children and youth with disability”.

Mental health and participation in life situations are two universal and related aspects of human functioning. A relatively high prevalence of mental health problems as well as participation restrictions in everyday activities are reported for children with disabilities compared to other children.

To increase mental health and participation, knowledge is needed regarding what are influences that are specific to certain disability groups, and what is universal to all disability groups when both these perspectives on functioning are studied. Such knowledge will affect how participation based interventions focusing on mental health are provided to children with disabilities.

Broad health based information about intervention and support provided to children with disabilities are found in the Swedish National Quality Registry for Child and Adolescent Habilitation (HabQ). By collaborating with habilitation professionals and families in adapting measures and assessment methods already used in the HabQ register, the utility of the register can be enhanced and inform on mental health data; hence the children can get the support they need to improve their mental health.

The focus of this research program is to investigate the relations between participation and factors affecting participation with a special focus on mental health and services provided to children with disabilities who have mental health problems. This information will be used to improve access to services and develop accessible interventions for these children and their families.

Program collaboration and steering

Nationally this 5-year program is a collaboration within the Swedish Institute of Disability Research, a collaboration between three universities; Jönköping University, Linköping University and Örebro University, and concerns the life situation for persons with disabilities.

Principal investigator will be Mats Granlund, PhD, professor of Disability research and Psychology at Jönköping University. He has focused his research on participation, everyday functioning and mental health in the last ten years. Granlund will work in a steering group including researchers from Australia, Canada, Linköping University, Örebro University, Mälardalen University, habilitation services and parents representing families having children with disabilities.

Contact

For more information, contact Professor Mats Granlund at Jönköping University;

e-mail Mats.granlund@ju.se cell phone 070-513 54 07