Timely support for promoting mental wellbeing among families with young children –an interview study exploring the experiences of multi-professional practitioners in Finland

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Abstract

Background

Childhood is a critical period for promoting mental wellbeing and previous research suggests that various family-focused mental health promotion and early prevention initiatives are effective. The aim of the study was to explore Finnish health and social care practitioners’ views and experiences of mental health promotion practice targeting families with young children.

Methods

Individual semi-structured interviews with 14 practitioners representing various municipal services, faith-based and third sector organizations were conducted in 2021 and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

Various challenges and opportunities for supporting mental health related to both structural features of the health and social care landscape and the varying needs of families were identified. The lack of resources as well as the social stigma associated with mental health problems and with public welfare services, hindered proactive work approaches and timely support. However, low-threshold initiatives and adapted information to families as well as further training about mental health for practitioners together with multi-professional collaboration and teamwork were suggested as potential enablers for mental health promotion.

Conclusions

The study highlights the importance of reaching families in a timely manner in order to promote mental wellbeing and prevent mental health problems. The findings, bringing to the fore the practitioners’ own experiences and views, suggest how current practice could be developed in order to safeguard mental health and wellbeing for all families with young children. The practitioners’ views and experiences are key components when building future sustainable and proactive health and social care services.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12875-023-02156-9.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Emilia W. E. Viklund: emilia.viklund@abo.fi

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Prim Care

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Prim Care

Title: BMC Primary Care

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2731-4553

Publication date (Electronic): 23 September 2023

Publication date PMC-release: 23 September 2023

Publication date Collection: 2023

Volume: 24

Electronic Location Identifier: 196

Affiliations

Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Health Sciences, Åbo Akademi University, ( https://ror.org/029pk6x14) Strandgatan 2, 65100 Vaasa, Finland

Article

Publisher ID: 2156

DOI: 10.1186/s12875-023-02156-9

PMC ID: 10517518

PubMed ID: 37741972

SO-VID: b6448bbd-32ba-4afb-8c82-643f69d99e50

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 30 June 2023

Date accepted : 12 September 2023

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100007247, Svenska Kulturfonden;

Funded by: Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet

Funded by: Högskolestiftelsen i Österbotten

Custom metadata

Keywords: mental health,health promotion,qualitative study,primary care,professionals

Data availability:

Keywords: mental health, health promotion, qualitative study, primary care, professionals