Mental health

The Health Committee

In 2006 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences appointed a committee to study “Ill-health experienced in school years – development, measurement and proposals for action”. The starting point was the reports on increased mental health problems among young persons that have been presented at intervals since the economic crisis in Sweden in the mid-1990s.

Explanations are often sought at the societal level, in changing social and economic conditions, as well as in tendencies towards increased individualisation in society, with growing demands placed on young people. The debate also focuses on school, both as a cause of ill-health and as an environment that can promote good health.

Conferences in video on demand 

Two State of the Science conferences and a hearing were held in 2010, and the conferences are available as video on demand below. The aim was to deepen and systematise our knowledge of trends and socio-demographic differences and our understanding of the connections between school, learning and mental health.  

Overviews of the relevant literature was produced prior to each of the conferences. These overviews formed the basis of the panels´ standpoints, together with statements from experts in the field and comments from participants during the conferences themselves. In order to avoid conflicts of interest, the panels consisted of scientific experts who were not themselves doing research on the mental health of schoolchildren. The conferences was open to the public. This model comes from the United States, from the “Consensus Conferences” and “State of the Science Conferences” arranged by National Institutes of Health (NIH).

2010-04-12 The mental health of schoolchildren – trends and socio-demographic differences
(parts of day 2 in English)
The conference focused on the question “Have school children's mental health in Sweden changed over time?”. Among the speakers you will find Sir Michael Rutter, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK and Prof. Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Children’s commissioner in England.

2010-04-26 School, learning and mental health
The conference focused on the question “Which are the mutual causal relations between school achievement and mental health?”. Among the speakers you will find Prof. Koji Miyamoto, OECD, France and Sir Michael Rutter, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK.
 

Members

The Committee has eight members, five of whom come from the different Classes of the Academy (see link to the upper right). Arne Wittlöv (Class for humanities and for outstanding services to science) is the Chairman of the Committee, and the Project Manager is Curt Hagquist, Associate Professor of Studies in Public Health at Karlstad University.