A YAM intervention is currently being planned and put into practice in Stockholm by NASP (the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health) in collaboration with the Stockholm County Council as funding partner. In the fall of 2016, the implementation of YAM will begin and will continue until the fall of 2018. Schools throughout the county will be selected randomly to either be part of an intervention or a control group. In total, about 10,000 students from grades 7 and 8 will be included in the study.
A YAM instructor training was held in Stockholm in August last year to train the first batch of YAM facilitators. Since October 2015, Marie-Louise Söderberg has been employed as project coordinator to manage and coordinate YAM and together with a process manager, Inga-Lill Ramberg, project assistant, Madeleine Fridlund, and other staff they have worked to prepare the intervention. Pilots of YAM have been conducted in high schools throughout the Stockholm county, working with youth to culturally adapt the content and materials. In addition to the pilots with youth, six of the instructors participated in a workshop to become YAM master trainers, able to train future instructors themselves. Then, finally, last week another instructor course was held in Stockholm. The first-time course instructors Anna Johansson, Madeleine Fridlund and Malena Ivarsson alongside second timer Niklas Andersson greatly enjoyed the experience of passing along YAM to the 12-instructors-to-be.
Guest bloggers: Madeleine Fridlund and Marie-Louise Söderberg