Funding of new research on children and adolescents mental health from Kavli Trust

For the second time, Kavli Trust has granted research projects aiming to provide knowledge to evidence gaps regarding the treatment of mental health problems in children and adolescents. Three projects receive a total of NOK 30 million, following a thorough application and review process.

The three projects that receive funding are:

• Echo: Optimizing a group-based school intervention for children with emotional problem (granted NOK 12.5 M NOK
• I‑PDT versus I‑CBT for depressed adolescents (granted NOK 5.3279 M NOK)
• Supported Parenting Interventions for Ethnic Minorities (granted NOK 12.3 M NOK)

“Mental health problems in children and adolescents make up a considerable part of today’s global disease burden, still funding for research addressing these problems is sparse. Hence, the Kavli Trust programme for Health Research focuses on treatment for this patient group in 2017-2019,” said general manager at the Kavli Trust, Inger Elise Iversen.

“To be sure to grant important research and to reduce avoidable research waste, the program is based on identification and prioritization of evidence gaps within this research field. We anticipate that the three granted projects will provide new important knowledge to the five research gaps they address.” said Ida Svege, senior advisor of The Kavli Trust Programme on Health Research.

The decision to grant these three research projects marks the end of the second year of this three-year commitment. The next call for proposals opened January 3rd.

BACKGROUND ON THE THREE PROJECTS THAT WILL RECEIVE FUNDING FROM THE KAVLI TRUST PROGRAMME FOR HEALTH RESEARCH 2018

PROJECT: Echo: Optimizing a group-based school intervention for children with emotional problem

• The project addresses the following evidence gaps
  • “What is the effect and the cost effectiveness of digital health interventions for children and adolescents with mental health problems?”
  • “What is the effect of feedback-informed measures on treatment effectiveness in children and adolescents?”
  • “What is the effect of school-based prevention programs for depression and/or anxiety in children and adolescents?
• The project will promote much needed research and innovation that optimize interventions and service provision in first line health services for the alarmingly high number of school children who suffer from clinical and subthreshold levels of anxiety and depression.
• The research team possess extensive and relevant experience and is led by Senior Researcher Simon-Peter Neumer.
• The host institution is Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (RBUP) Eastern and Southern Norway.
• The project period is 2019-2024.

Read more about the project here.

PROJECT: I‑PDT versus I‑CBT for depressed adolescents

• The project addresses the following evidence gaps
  • “What is the effect and the cost effectiveness of digital health interventions for children and adolescents with mental health problems?”
  • “What is the effect of feedback-informed measures on treatment effectiveness in children and adolescents?”
• The project can provide knowledge regarding the effectiveness of internet-delivered psychodynamic therapy, and internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy in reducing depressive symptoms in adolescents with depression.
• The research team possess extensive and relevant experience and is led by Associate Professor Björn Philips.
• The host institution is Stockholm University, Department of Psychology.
• The project period is 2019-2023

Read more about the project here.

PROJECT: Supported Parenting Interventions for Ethnic Minorities

• The project addresses the following evidence gaps
  • “What is the effect of feedback-informed measures on treatment effectiveness in children and adolescents?”
  • “What is the effect of interventions for refugee and asylum seeking children?”
  • “What is the effect of parenting programme interventions targeting mental health in adolescents in diverse ethnocultural communities?”
• The project can provide knowledge regarding the effectiveness of the parenting intervention for improving measures of parenting skills, lowering parental stress, and reducing emotional and behavioral problems in children of newly settled families in Norway.
• The research team possess extensive and relevant experience and is led by Associate Professor Joshua Patras.
• The host institution is UiT The Arctic University of Norway, RKBU North.
• The project period is 2019-2023

Read more about the project here.