What Matters to You? (Assert)

What Matters to You? How to Strengthen Adolescent User Involvement in Primary Mental Health Services With Systematic Idiographic Assessment

Procedures for systematic user involvement in primary mental health services are lacking, and several adolescents are dissatisfied with their opportunities to influence the service provided. The research on the effects of user involvement is scarce, especially regarding user involvement for children and adolescents. Hence, we suggest introducing an idiographic assessment tool in a selection of Norwegian primary mental health services. Idiographic assessment is a way of measuring psychological constructs, by using tools specifically adapted for each individual respondent.

This protocol describes the implementation and evaluation of a user involvement tool called 'Assert', in Norwegian primary mental health services. Assert is a simple tool where the adolescents themselves decide the goals or themes that they would like to address in collaboration with their service provider. Assert is scored each time the adolescent and the service provider meet, to monitor progress toward the goal. A randomised controlled trial design is proposed for this study. Assert will be implemented in 5-10 Norwegian municipalities, and will include 250 participants between 12 and 23 years. The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between Assert and perceived user involvement. Are idiographic measures an adequate way to operationalise user involvement on an individual level? And if so, can user involvement (i.e. Assert) have an effect on quality of life and mental health in adolescents? And lastly qualitative analyses of the adolescents' themes and goals will be conducted to explore what matters to the adolescents that visit primary mental health services in Norwegian municipalities.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Behavioural, Emotional, and Psychosocial Problems
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Assert

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 150
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Norway
  • Hønefoss, Norway
    • Ringerike kommune
  • Kongsberg, Norway
    • Kongsberg kommune
  • Lillestrøm, Norway
    • Skedsmo kommune
  • Lørenskog, Norway
    • Lørenskog kommune
  • Mysen, Norway
    • Eidsberg Kommune
  • Oslo, Norway
    • Bydel Søndre Nordstrand
  • Oslo, Norway
    • UngArena
  • Tønsberg, Norway
    • Familiehuset Adler
  • Ulefoss, Norway
    • Nome kommune
  • Våler, Norway
    • Våler kommune
  • Ål, Norway
    • Ål kommune

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 12 years to 23 years (ADULT, CHILD)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents between 12 and 23 years, with behavioural, emotional, and psychosocial problems

Exclusion Criteria:

• severe psychopathological disorders
• severe drug addiction
• intellectual disabilities

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Intervention; The Assert-method will be used in the counselling of adolescents with mental health problems	Other: Assert; The Assert-method is a counselling method used to assess and systematically follow up the individual adolescents' perceived needs.
NO_INTERVENTION: Control; Treatment as usual, i.e. tha Assert-method will not be used in the counselling

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ)	One year
Inventory of Life Quality in Children and Adolescents (ILC)	One year
Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC)	One year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The Assert measurement tool	An ideographic assessment and monitoring tool, used as a part of the Assert method	One year
User involvement questionnaire	Perceived degree of user involvement	One year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Regionsenter for barn og unges psykiske helse
• Collaborators: Norwegian Extra Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Turid Suzanne Berg-Nielsen, PhD, Regional Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Eastern and Southern Norway (RBUP)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Tollefsen TK, Neumer SP, Berg-Nielsen TS. "What matters to you?": A randomized controlled effectiveness trial, Using Systematic Idiographic Assessment as an intervention to Increase Adolescents' perceived control of their mental health. J Adolesc. 2020 Jan;78:53-61. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.11.006. Epub 2019 Dec 10.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): January 1, 2017
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): June 1, 2018
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): June 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 4, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 5, 2017
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): January 9, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): February 10, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 7, 2020
• Last Verified: February 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2016/FO77493

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No