Christina Bartnick, Hanna Christiansen, Silvia Schneider
{"title":"Giving children a voice: Concept development and foundation of the first Children's council \"mental health\" in Germany.","authors":"Christina Bartnick, Hanna Christiansen, Silvia Schneider","doi":"10.1002/jcv2.12293","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>As summarized by the Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (McGorry et al., 2024), the statistics on mental disorders in children are alarming and highlight the need to expand and optimize research on childhood mental health. Although patient and public involvement (PPI) of those affected has the potential to boost both the acceptance and outcomes of research studies, the active involvement of young children, that is, primary school children, in mental health research has been neglected.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Based on the results of our systematic literature analysis of PPI of children in mental health research, the concept development of the Children's Council 'Mental Health' was administered in cooperation with several stakeholders and focus groups (practitioners and researchers in the field of clinical psychology and psychotherapy across the lifespan, representatives from three self-help organizations for mental disorders, children's focus group). The concept was further optimized in collaboration with the German Children's Fund (Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk e. V.).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The Children's Council was successfully founded with five children aged between 6 and 9 years. Participation is positively received, and each meeting is evaluated using visual measurements. The results from the meetings are presented and discussed. They serve as basis for concrete recommendations for involving young children in mental health research.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>To the best of our knowledge, this is the first structured approach involving young children in mental health research studies. The main goal of our study is the direct and immediate empowerment of children, in this case primary school children at the age of 6-12 years. This is associated with a child-friendly exchange on topics related to mental health, as well as the enhancement of the education process on mental disorders and prevention.</p>","PeriodicalId":73542,"journal":{"name":"JCPP advances","volume":"4 4","pages":"e12293"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669770/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JCPP advances","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12293","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/12/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: As summarized by the Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (McGorry et al., 2024), the statistics on mental disorders in children are alarming and highlight the need to expand and optimize research on childhood mental health. Although patient and public involvement (PPI) of those affected has the potential to boost both the acceptance and outcomes of research studies, the active involvement of young children, that is, primary school children, in mental health research has been neglected.
Methods: Based on the results of our systematic literature analysis of PPI of children in mental health research, the concept development of the Children's Council 'Mental Health' was administered in cooperation with several stakeholders and focus groups (practitioners and researchers in the field of clinical psychology and psychotherapy across the lifespan, representatives from three self-help organizations for mental disorders, children's focus group). The concept was further optimized in collaboration with the German Children's Fund (Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk e. V.).
Results: The Children's Council was successfully founded with five children aged between 6 and 9 years. Participation is positively received, and each meeting is evaluated using visual measurements. The results from the meetings are presented and discussed. They serve as basis for concrete recommendations for involving young children in mental health research.
Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first structured approach involving young children in mental health research studies. The main goal of our study is the direct and immediate empowerment of children, in this case primary school children at the age of 6-12 years. This is associated with a child-friendly exchange on topics related to mental health, as well as the enhancement of the education process on mental disorders and prevention.
背景:正如《柳叶刀》青少年精神卫生精神病学委员会(McGorry et al., 2024)所总结的那样,儿童精神障碍的统计数据令人震惊,并强调需要扩大和优化儿童精神卫生研究。尽管患者和公众参与(PPI)有可能提高研究的接受度和结果,但幼儿(即小学生)积极参与心理健康研究一直被忽视。方法:基于我们对儿童心理健康研究中PPI的系统文献分析结果,儿童理事会“心理健康”概念的发展是与几个利益相关者和焦点小组(临床心理学和心理治疗领域的从业者和研究人员,三个精神障碍自助组织的代表,儿童焦点小组)合作进行的。与德国儿童基金会(Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk e. V.)合作,进一步优化了这一概念。结果:5名6 - 9岁的儿童成功成立了儿童理事会。积极接受参与,每次会议都使用视觉测量进行评估。会议的结果被展示和讨论。它们是让幼儿参与心理健康研究的具体建议的基础。结论:据我们所知,这是第一个涉及幼儿心理健康研究的结构化方法。我们研究的主要目标是直接和立即赋予儿童权力,在这种情况下,6-12岁的小学生。与此同时,还就与心理健康有关的主题开展了一次对儿童友好的交流,并加强了关于精神障碍和预防的教育进程。