“We will be recruiting an initial group of students who we will follow throughout their studies,” says Anne H. Berman, docent and senior lecturer at the Department of Psychology, national leader of the project together with colleague Claes Andersson, docent at Malmö University and visiting researcher at Uppsala University.
The questionnaire is intended to identify students with mental health disorders and, where necessary, refer them to available help resources or, from spring 2021, offer them the opportunity to participate in studies of digital interventions against depression, anxiety and other common disorders.
“By conducting annual studies and follow-ups in all participating countries, we hope to develop and disseminate evidence-based methods and digital-based initiatives that can contribute to improving our students’ mental health. Gaining knowledge of and promoting the health of students – both physical and mental – is of course a matter of particular concern during the pandemic. This is something that we can contribute knowledge to through our work in the project.”
International project based at Harvard
The international project World Health Organization (WHO): World Mental Health International College Student Initiative (WMH-ICS) was launched in 2012 under the leadership of Ronald Kessler, PhD, McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard University in the United States.
The project is currently underway in 15 countries, from Chile and the United States to Australia via Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and is part of the broader project the WHO World Mental Health Survey Initiative, which began mapping mental health disorders among adults worldwide in 2000, with participants from some 30 countries.
Sweden joined the programme last year and, in addition to Uppsala University, the participants include the University of Gothenburg, Stockholm University, Malmö University, Linnaeus University and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. The project is being conducted in close cooperation with student health services, student unions and university management at each higher education institution. A pilot study began at two institutions during spring semester 2020 and the autumn semester will see data collection expanded to include six institutions, including Uppsala University.
“We are currently sending out invitations to participate in the research project to students in the first year of their first-cycle programmes at Uppsala University. We are keen to see Uppsala students taking part and thereby contributing to improving student mental health locally and globally,” says Anne H Berman.