Adolescent mental health:
mapping actions of nongovernmental organizations and other international development organizations

World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).  June 2012

Chiara Servili, Child and adolescent mental health at the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse

 

Available online PDF [50p.] at:  http://bit.ly/Nd2KnJ

 

“………..describes actions undertaken by a range of international development organizations to address adolescents’ mental health needs at country level.

Adolescent mental health is inadequately addressed by international development organizations and actions at country level appear to be fragmented. Interventions for promotion of psychosocial well-being and provision of mental health care to adolescents often have narrowly-focused, project-specific objectives, while opportunities to mainstream adolescent mental health in education, health and child protection programmes are still largely untapped…”

 

“…..The mapping exercise entailed the collection and utilization of data from diverse and complementary sources comprised:
(a) a desk review of technical documents addressing adolescent mental health (e.g. technical reports, bulletins, website contents, peer-reviewed articles etc.); and
(b) a key informants survey with programme managers responsible for projects relevant to adolescent mental health at international organizations.

 

Triangulation of data was adopted with data from desk review and key informants' survey contributing to the overall mapping of actions by international actors in the field of adolescent mental health.

In addition, preliminary data obtained through the desk review informed and guided the development of the key informants' questionnaire and highlighted critical thematic areas that required more in-depth investigation.

(a) Desk review - An online search was performed for technical documents, grey and published literature related to adolescent mental health actions undertaken by international organizations (both country implementation and normative work). Additional information was collected by interrogating key informants about potentially useful technical materials they were aware of. Reviewed documents included scientific papers, technical reports, organizational websites, advocacy, planning and capacity building tools, and bulletins (see Annex 4).

(b) Key informants survey A brief semi-structured questionnaire was submitted to programme officers responsible for adolescent mental health initiatives relevant to adolescent mental health at international organizations.

Topics investigated included

i) programmes and interventions implemented in the period 2000–2010 that address adolescents' mental health and psychosocial well-being in diverse settings (including school, community and primary health care);
ii) strategic documents, guidelines, advocacy materials and training tools relevant for adolescent mental health;
iii) partnerships in the field of adolescent mental health; iv) perceived challenges, opportunities and priorities for future actions.

 

Information collected through the desk review and key informants' survey was compiled in summary tables and
analysed according to the following thematic areas:

a) Adolescent mental health (AMH) actions, programmes and interventions at all levels (global, regional and country levels)

b) Technical/normative tools contributing to adolescent mental health and psychosocial well-being (including advocacy tools, planning tools, policies/strategies, guidelines, capacity building materials, and health promotion tools).

c) Operational researches/situation analysis/needs assessments on issues related to adolescent mental health and psychosocial well-being.

d) Partnerships relevant to adolescent mental health ….”

KMC/2012/SDE
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