RecruitingNot Applicable

Psychiatric Outreach Nurses Supporting Adolescent Mental Health

Finland160 participantsStarted 2024-05-06

Plain-language summary

The study evaluates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the outreach work of psychiatric registered nurses (RN) and the experiences of professionals in the field. The service is provided in school environment. First, the study will assess the effectiveness of brief interventions provided by psychiatric outreach nurses on the perceived mental health and quality of life of adolescents (12-16 year old pupils) and their use of social and health services, compared to the support/treatment provided by conventional student welfare services at 6 and 12 months follow-up. The intervention is an outreach service provided by psychiatric nurses. In the intervention, the psychiatric registered nurse will implement interventions such as usual care, discussion, psychoeducation, substance abuse skills and various methods (such as interpersonal psychotherapy = IPT-N and Cool Kids) and motivational interviewing. Secondly, an economic evaluation of the service will be carried out at 6 and 12 months follow-up. The economic evaluation will be carried out from the perspective of the Wellbeing Services County, including the costs of implementing the intervention model and its effects on adolescents' use of student welfare services as well as other social and health services. Primarily, the economic evaluation will use quality-weighted life years as a measure of effectiveness. Also analysis using depression, anxiety and substance use measures will be conducted. Thirdly, the study will explore the experiences of psychiatric nurses implementing the service as well as the experiences of their collaborators in schools (public health nurses, school social workers, psychologists, doctors and teachers) about the service and its implementation.

Who can participate

Age range12 Years – 16 Years

SexALL

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AI-rewrites the medical criteria so a patient or caregiver can understand them. Always confirm with the trial site.

Inclusion Criteria: * Adolescents (12-16 years old) who seek help from student welfare services due to mood disorders and who have one or more of the following conditions: prolonged and/or complicated anxiety, mood symptoms, obsessive-compulsive and/or eating disorder symptoms, mild to moderate self-harm (e.g. death wishes or cutting). In addition, person's motivation to receive the service provided is an admission criterion. Exclusion Criteria: * Persons with one or more of the following needs or life situations: adolescents who need light support and guidance, young people with a single problem of low motivation for school, young people with a stressful life situation or relationship problems. On the other hand, adolescents who are in acute need of specialist care or for adolescents with multidisciplinary problems for whom support measures have already been put in place, because of their mental health symptoms (e.g. severe depression, psychotic symptoms, severe and acute suicidal tendencies or a clear suicide plan). * Exclusion criteria for the intervention and control groups also include situations where the adolescent has a long-lasting, already established mental health problem and/or a need for further treatment after a period of specialised hospital care. * Exclusion criteria also include behavioural disorders where there is a clear underlying cause other than a mental disorder.

What they're measuring

Patient Health Questionnaire modified for adolescent to measure perceived mental health

Timeframe: 6-month and 12-month follow-up

Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item to measure adolescent's perceived mental health

Timeframe: 6-month and 12-month follow-up

Trial details

NCT IDNCT06438276

SponsorUniversity of Eastern Finland

Sponsor typeOTHER

Study typeOBSERVATIONAL

Primary completion2026-12-31

Contact for this trial

Anne Surakka, M.Soc.Sc, MHS (Health Econ.)

+358505292553 anne.surakka@uef.fi