Lets Talk about Children

ongoing

In Europe, increasing numbers of children and adolescents seek mental health support and services cannot meet the need. Furthermore, children’s situation is often neglected when parents seek help in adult services. Let's Talk about Children (LTC) is a short evidence-based child-centred psychosocial intervention to promote mental health of children and prevent intergenerational transmission of problems by identifying strengths, resources and everyday solutions for children, parents, teachers, and the network of families. LTC can be provided by a range of health, social care and education professionals. The three-year project LetsTalk aims at disseminating and implementing the LTC in ten European countries by trainings of local LTC Practitioners. The implementation will be sensitive to the local context and build on the specific needs of each site. Project actions will either aim to promote positive parenting and family life in families in vulnerable situations, such as parents in mental health services or reception centres for refugees and asylum seekers, or aim to take a universal approach by implementing LTC in primary and secondary school settings, providing a tool for home-school collaboration in order for parents and teachers to better understand the psychosocial needs of the children at home and school. Implementation will be supported by raising awareness on children’s needs also among the public, clinicians and decision makers. Sustainability and further dissemination of the LTC model will be achieved by training LTC Trainers for each participating country. A sustainability plan for going to scale in uptake of the LTC intervention will be made by the lead partner in each country, and efforts will be made to include LTC in local, regional and national mental health policies, strategies and action plans. A continuous process evaluation will ensure a high quality of project implementation.