A NATIONAL IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERPERSONAL COUNSELLING, ADOLESCENT VERSION (IPC-A) IN FINLAND

Abstract

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among adolescents and young adults. Interpersonal counselling, adolescent version (IPC-A) is a short method to treat depression of adolescents in 3 to 8 sessions in primary healthcare. IPC-A has been selected in a participatory project for national implementation in Finland, starting 2020. By the end of 2022, the estimated need to treat 7000 depressed adolescents per year in primary care will be targeted by training about 1600 professionals in providing IPC-A. In preparation for implementation of this strategy, the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health funded a project in 2016-2017. The first step was selection of evidence-based interventions that would be suitable for national implementation in primary care. The government then funded a pilot study using IPC-A intervention in one city. The pilot had the goal of constructing a national implementation model for further testing within adolescent mental health services. As the results were encouraging, IPC-A was then chosen as the first intervention to test for nationwide implementation of short interventions in primary care. Five university clinics coordinated subsequent national training and local implementation. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and Itla Children’s Foundation provided implementation support for local project teams. While the training is still ongoing, the successes and limitations of the implementation process will be explored from the perspective of national coordination and support of implementation.

Keywords

• mental health
• intervention
• school
• adolescent
• interpersonal
• implementation
• strategy
• evidence based