Umeå universitets logga

Supported Education – an opportunity to reduce marginalization 

Introduction:Several studies have shown that people with mental health problems are less educated than their peers.While these young adults are more likely to drop out of school, many post-secondary institutions do not offer services readily available to students with mental health problems. Supported Education (SEd) is an intervention that focuses on helping young adults toachieve their educational goalsby providing specific expertise, concrete supports and coordinated services. While these services are delivered within a number of models, there is a lack of knowledge of components of SEd and how the model can be adapted in different welfare settings. 

The aimof this study was to investigate the development of SEd services in Sweden, with a particular focus on identified needs, authorities and responsibility issues related to resources and implementation issues particular to Sweden. 

Method:Ten group and two individual interviews with in total 55 persons were conducted. The informants included a broad sample of stakeholders who in their profession work with or have contact with educational support, as well as young adults experiencing mental health problems who have used educational support. 

Results: Educational supports were primarily described as an answer to an identified ‘problem’, a growing population of young people at risk of exclusion and long-lasting marginalised positions. The population were divided in threemore or less distinct categories of young adults: those with serious mental health problems; with neuropsychiatric disabilities and additional (‘school related’) mental health problems; and refugees with mental health problems due to harsh experiences. The need for educational support was in part ascribed to individual characteristics, but primarily as due to obstacles created by environmental conditions, e.g. school milieus not adapted to individual characteristic, increased demands, and contradictions within and between different regulations. Educational support was described as counteracting the effects of a highly differentiated welfare system, illustrated as separate pipelines (or which often fragment individual needs). According to the respondents, sufficient support is person-centred and individualised, and relies on staff well-informed of the individual’s current situation as well as of the welfare system and collaborations with respect for each actor’s scope and regulating framework. The social context, the ‘social infrastructure’, around individuals during studies are discussed more specifically in this study than how it occurs in other studies. The analysis points to the value of developing SEd in a Swedish context as dependent on and in collaborative forms with natural welfare system resources. The study suggests that this might be a first step towards considering needs related to educational and vocational goals from a holistic and long-term perspective, one that reflects the manner in which all young adults struggle to establish themselves as participatory adults.