Improving Digital Mental Health Services With and for National Minority, Indigenous, and Refugee Youth in Norway: The...

Worldwide, minority youth receive culturally sensitive mental health services less often than the majority peer population. In Norway, limited research exists on the mental health and service use among youth from national minority (Forrest Finns, Kven or Norwegian Finns, Jews, Roma, and Romani), Indigenous (Sámi), and refugee backgrounds. Although the Norwegian government provides a public communication channel for youth, including mental health information and support, digital services have not been adapted to meet the needs of these groups. There is currently no research to determine the use, acceptability, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and safety of these services for these youth.

The main aim of the InvolveMENT project is to improve the mental health of national minority, Indigenous, and refugee youth. The project's objectives are, for these groups of youth, to (1) determine the mental health and digital support needs and possible barriers to and facilitators of service use; (2) assess the use of and satisfaction with digital services to meet their mental health needs; (3) explore their perspectives on digital mental health services; (4) develop recommendations that can be used to adapt digital services to meet their needs and rights; and (5) assess the use, acceptability, satisfaction, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and safety of adapted services.

The 4-year InvolveMENT project consists of four phases: (1) establishing a longitudinal cohort consisting of national minority, Indigenous, and refugee youth, using surveys to assess their mental health, well-being, digital support needs, use and satisfaction with digital services, and possible barriers to and facilitators of service use; (2) conducting qualitative interviews with minority youth to explore their perspectives and synthesizing data from phases 1 and 2 for a mixed methods analysis; (3) involving youth and health care and other professionals to develop proposals to adapt and improve the existing digital services; and (4) a randomized controlled trial and a qualitative study to evaluate the adapted services.

Cohort and qualitative study designs have been completed. Ethics applications have been approved, and recruitment to the cohort and qualitative studies has started.

The InvolveMENT project has the potential to enhance the accessibility and quality of health care services and early interventions, reduce inequality in service provision for minority groups, and strengthen collaboration between youth, public, and research organizations. Through this, it has the potential to improve the mental health of youth from these groups. The findings might be transferable to other minority groups, both nationally and internationally.