Youth-GEMs member, Prof. dr. Jim Os was one of the keynote speakers at the international conference of the European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation (ENMESH) conference in Versailles, France on 4-6 July 2024.
The main theme of this conference was ‘Evaluation of mental health services: everyone’s business’. Jim spoke about the increasing mental health problems in young people, how we should conceptualize it and which environments can contribute to it.
He shared, “In my lecture I emphasize that we need to focus less on disorder thinking and more on public health interventions that allow for the attractiveness of vulnerability and human connection. It is essential to create environments in which young people can build resilience, not only within the family and at school, but also within the wider society. Without this collectivist approach we risk getting stuck in a pattern of symptomatic treatment, while the underlying causes remain unaddressed. In some countries this has already begun, with remarkable results. What is the secret of their approach and can we do it too?”
