Young people with mild depressive symptoms are helped by discussion and a support team of loved ones

18.5.2021 10.41Updated: 8.10.2021 12.18

School social workers, nurses and school psychologists are now trained to use a method whereby a young person can get help with mild depressive symptoms by talking to an adult in their school. This is an effective treatment method that has been successfully tested in Espoo, for example. The official name of the method is IPC, interpersonal counselling.

Seven municipalities are already using the method – to be introduced all over Western Uusimaa  

There are already trained instructors in Espoo, Kirkkonummi, Hanko, Raseborg, Siuntio, Karkkila and Lohja.  

“39 professionals have already received the training and, in the next few years, the goal is to train everyone in Western Uusimaa who can give guidance to young people in schools as part of their job,” says Project Manager Petri Luomaa, who develops mental health services for children and young people in Western Uusimaa.  

The schools focus on shorter and lighter treatments. For more serious symptoms, the young person is assisted in specialised health care.  

“Even short treatments can often help solve big problems,” says nurse and IPC instructor Mari Hintikka. She works in the Terapiat Etulinjaan project, which improves the availability and effectiveness of psychosocial treatments.  

Dealing with negative feelings caused by changes and relationships by strengthening the good things in the young person’s life  

Depressive symptoms are often primarily caused by major changes in life and problems in relationships, which is why discussions and exercises with the IPC worker focus on them.  

“Things we discuss with the young person include their mood symptoms, relationship problems and the challenges involved. We build a support team around the young person, a group of people who are important to them – people from whom they receive support, encouragement and comfort and with whom they can experience fun and joy,” says Mari Hintikka.  

School and upper secondary school social worker Miia Kettula currently uses the method for counselling upper secondary school students in Kirkkonummi. She says that the most rewarding thing is finding the biggest challenge in the young person’s life and starting to solve it together. In the method, it is important to set a shared goal for the young person and the instructor to work towards.  

“For example, we talk about what happened in the person’s life during the past week and look at various ways in which they could have acted or what they could have said. I don’t give direct answers, but we think about things together,” Kettula explains. “What’s most important is to strengthen all the positive things that already exist in the young person’s life.”  

 

Never hesitate to get in touch: “Even a small concern is enough”  

The young people have told Miia Kettula that they have found the meetings useful. Kettula herself had long wished for a more effective tool to treat depressive symptoms in children and young people.  

According to Mari Hintikka, too, there is a clear need for the method in schools and child welfare services, for example. “It somehow makes common sense and is practical,” Hintikka says.  

She also thinks that, from the perspective of the young people themselves, it is easy to commit to the treatment. They know that they have six appointments, usually about once a week, and sometimes there are exercises. The young people are usually referred to the service through school health care.  

Miia Kettula believes that the advantage of the method is that it is easy for a young person to come to meetings at school. The young people have also told Kettula that help has been provided just in time before the situation would get worse. She also encourages parents/guardians to contact pupil welfare services unhesitatingly.  

“Even a small concern is enough. The sooner you contact the employees, the better we can work things out. I’ve been worried about situations where help is only sought when things have already gone so wrong that the young person’s symptoms have become serious,” Kettula says.  

 

A new treatment method also tried for anxiety  

In addition to IPC, another treatment method, CoolKids, will be tried in Western Uusimaa. It particularly focuses on the anxiety symptoms of children and young people and can also be provided close to the young people, in the school environment.  

Project Manager Petri Luomaa, who has long experience in developing various mental health treatments and services, says that young people are experiencing anxiety at an increasingly early age. He emphasises that he is talking specifically about feelings of anxiety, not diagnoses, which are often confused in discussions.  

“In addition to COVID-19, there are other factors that increase anxiety: young people themselves have enormous expectations of others and of themselves. You have to be successful, gain top grades in all subjects, do five different sports... Self-expectations are not realistic. An over-demanding personality may begin developing earlier and earlier,” Luomaa says, describing the phenomenon behind anxiety.  

For example, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare reports that, according to various studies, around 20–25% of young people suffer from a mental disorder. Mari Hintikka says that the challenges of youth may also affect adulthood.  

“The depressive symptoms of many adults have started in adolescence. That’s another reason why it is important to invest in young people.”  

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