The main objective of the Center is to develop and strengthen the national and international knowledge in mental health and substance abuse. We do this together with people with lived experiences, family members and professionals. The Center is interdisciplinary and offers a variety of research approaches. Persons in the Centre have comprehensive clinical experiences with elderly, adults, children and youth experiencing mental health, substance abuse and social challenges.
Special areas of interest
- Persons’ lived experiences with mental health and substance abuse problems
- Persons experiences of recovery and recovery-oriented practices
- Person- and context-centered approaches
- Family and social-network perspectives
- Service development
- Action research, especially user-involved collaborative research
Four key areas within mental health and substance abuse
1) Recovery and community approaches
- Recovery as personal AND social processes
- Developing recovery-oriented practices
- Recovery training and supervision
- Peer support work
- Recovery assessment
2) Dialogical and collaborative practices
- Developing dialogical and collaborative services
- Open dialogue in family and network settings
- Conduct educational programs and studies
- Practice and program evaluation
3) Collaborative research in and with practice
- Focus on democratic research, dissemination and use of research findings
- Develop and practice user-involved collaborative research methodologies
- Post-graduate program in user-involved collaborative research
- Practice and program evaluation
4) Child and adolescent issues
- School dropout
- Childhood poverty and social exclusion
- Family therapy approaches and feedback systems
- Involving children and adolescence in research