4.P. Workshop: Mental health among adolescents – from epidemiological surveillance to school-based promotion
Authors:   Organised by: University Health Care Research Center (Sweden),   Chair persons: Fredrik Söderqvist (Sweden), Johanna Gustafsson (Sweden)
Published: October 2023

Tacitly it has been assumed that mental health would prevail in the absence of pathology. However, the relationship between mental illness and mental health is not symmetrical in the sense that the absence of the former necessarily means high levels of the latter. On the contrary, a growing body of evidence shows that high levels of well-being independently predict less subsequent mental illness and have a range of positive effects on individuals and society. If we continue to neglect positive conceptualisations of mental health and health assets in our research, we will end up with an impoverished picture of the distribution and determinants of mental health at the population level. Drawing from our experience with epidemiological surveillance and the development, testing and evaluation of a new manual-based intervention to promote adolescent mental health, the objective of this workshop will be to present how mental health can be conceptualized, monitored, and promoted using the two continua model of mental health. The latter holds that mental illness and mental health are two related but distinct dimensions as opposed to the conventional single continua model that puts mental illness at one end and mental health at the other as opposites. To accomplish the workshop in a coherent manner require four presentations. The first two presentations will illuminate the importance of including also mental well-being in epidemiological surveillance of mental health and an example will be made of this using a regional population survey among Swedish adolescents prior to and three years after the Covid-19 outbreak. The last two presentations will shift focus from measuring population needs to addressing these needs with a tailor made school-based intervention. The school with its compensatory mandate is an important arena for health-promoting interventions as it may positively influence students’ developmental trajectories into adulthood, especially their mental health. Likewise, mental health is important for the school and for society, since students who are mentally flourishing have an easier time learning things and better conditions to cope with school. However, there is a dearth of evaluated interventions designed specifically to promote mental well-being in adolescents. Current theories of hedonic and eudemonic well-being along with the solution-focused approach will be presented as frameworks for enhancing well-being in adolescents followed by its application in a new manual-based programme aimed at promoting mental well-being in upper secondary school. The Solution-focused Intervention for Mental health was developed over a period of five years in three feasibility studies. The last presentation will briefly describe from theory to practice how components of mental well-being are broken down to indicators, contextualised and given practical meaning in everyday life.

Key messages

• To properly assess adolescent mental health in a population, using the two continua model, means to measure and combine the results of both mental ill health and mental well-being.

• The new Solution-focused Intervention for Mental health (SIM) is a manual-based program designed and tested to promote adolescent mental health in upper secondary school.