The escalation plan for mental health
The Mental Health Escalation Plan is a long-lasting, broad-based plan for development and improvement within the mental health field. The plan's overall goal is for more people to experience good mental health and quality of life, and for those in need of mental health care to receive good and easily accessible help.
Three focus areas
The plan has three main areas: health-promoting and preventive mental health work, good services where people live, and services for those with long-term and complex needs. In total, the plan includes almost 100 measures. Its development and implementation involve several sectors (health and long-term care, family and childhood, education, welfare, work, culture, and justice) and a number of different actors such as ministries, directorates, other underlying agencies, service providers, user- and relative organizations, and other interest organizations. More details can be found in (Norwegian) St. 23 (2022-2023) Opptrappingsplan for psykisk helse (2023-2033) here.
The Directorate of Health was commissioned to establish an evaluation program in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health - NIPH, and a comprehensive research project was announced. Health service researchers at SINTEF, with extensive experience in the field of mental health, were chosen to conduct the evaluation.
Flexible and dynamic approach
Because the plan is long-term and comprehensive and the measures are phased in over many years, a flexible and dynamic approach has been chosen for the evaluation. Prioritization of research questions will be adapted to the phasing in and knowledge needs and will be done with the involvement of relevant stakeholders. Method triangulation, i.e. the use of different qualitative and quantitative data and methods, will contribute to knowledge on the implementation and results in both breadth and depth.
SINTEF collaborates with the Regforsk group at NTNU and with AHUS, two strong research partners in methods and in the mental health and substance abuse field.