Abstract

Promotion of children’s mental health (MH) plays an important role in preventing further MH problems. In Finland, the well-being of children is supported in early childhood education and care (ECEC), basic education, maternity clinics, and child health clinics. Providing these services for children and families requires multiprofessional collaboration. The aim of this study was to investigate the current practice of children’s MH promotion, more specifically children’s MH services and multiprofessional collaboration between social and health care services and ECEC/basic education. The study focused on MH questions regarding children in 18 municipalities of Finland from the approach of socio-ecological model of health promotion. The participants of this cross-sectional study were ECEC professionals in municipal day care, basic education professionals, and primary health care professionals who work with children younger than 14. The data collected via questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-squared analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), the Brown-Forsythe robust test, and Tukey HSD post hoc comparisons. A total of 482 professionals participated in this study. Overall, respondents indicated relatively poor satisfaction toward most aspects of current MH promotion. Professionals from municipalities that provided primary health care and social services independently evaluated MH promotion most positively. However, deficiencies in multiprofessional collaboration between organizations were reported. The work experience influenced professionals’ perceptions of the challenges of collaboration; respondents with the least work experience were most critically concerned. These results imply that the promotion of children’s MH and MH services needs to be further developed.

摘要

促进儿童的心理健康 (MH) 在预防进一步的 MH 问题方面发挥着重要作用。在芬兰，儿童的福祉在幼儿教育和保育 (ECEC)、基础教育、产科诊所和儿童保健诊所得到支持。为儿童和家庭提供这些服务需要多专业合作。本研究的目的是调查儿童 MH 推广的当前实践，更具体地说是儿童 MH 服务以及社会和卫生保健服务与 ECEC/基础教育之间的多专业合作。该研究从健康促进的社会生态模型的方法出发，重点研究了芬兰 18 个城市儿童的 MH 问题。这项横断面研究的参与者是市政日托的 ECEC 专业人员，基础教育专业人员和与 14 岁以下儿童一起工作的初级卫生保健专业人员。 使用描述性统计、卡方分析、主成分分析 (PCA)、Brown-Forsythe 稳健检验和 Tukey HSD 分析通过问卷收集的数据事后比较。共有 482 名专业人员参与了这项研究。总体而言，受访者表示对当前 MH 推广的大多数方面的满意度较低。来自提供初级卫生保健和社会服务的市政当局的专业人员对 MH 推广的评价最为积极。然而，据报道，组织之间的多专业合作存在缺陷。工作经历影响了专业人士对协作挑战的看法；工作经验最少的受访者最为关注。这些结果意味着儿童MH和MH服务的推广需要进一步发展。