Travellers for Vulnerable Young People

Title of ongoing intervention programme

Travellers - for Vulnerable Young People - a research-based intervention programme.

Background

Research projects at Centre for Suicide Research have dealt with the personal welfare of young people with Danish as well as different ethnic origins. From these studies it appears that poor personal welfare of young people, among other things, is reflected in the increased occurrence of self-injurious actions and suicide attempts. On the background of these vulnerable young people the Travellers programme has been initiated.

Travellers is a psycho-educative programme developed in New Zealand and adapted to Danish conditions and culture. In many ways New Zealand is comparable with Denmark as far as development, education, culture and immigration is concerned.

The idea behind the project is to make young people imagine that they are travellers in life. At the same time they are supported in developing and acquiring coping strategies which can guide them through challenges and changes in their journey through life. Travellers is not a therapeutic course but focuses on mental health across different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Purpose

The purpose of Travellers is to promote a healthy development of young people. Furthermore, the purpose is to support young people in developing and obtaining "tools" for coping with difficulties experienced in their teens. The overall purpose is to prevent suicidal behaviour among young people.

Method

The project is offered certain public schools in Odense, Copenhagen and Aarhus in which 50 per cent of the pupils have a different ethnic background than Danish. The target group is pupils in the 7th to the 10th grade.

The young people are picked out on the basis of a short questionnaire designed for identifying vulnerability, serious thoughts of self harm and self-injurious behaviour. Parents are informed and asked for commitment.

Group meetings: The vulnerable young people are to participate in well-structured group courses spread over eight meetings of 1½ hours duration. The aim is to arrange groups consisting of young people with different ethnic and cultural background considering that the young people can learn from the different approaches to problem solving and from the experiences of one another. The groups will consist of 6 to 8 participants and will be lead by professional Travellers project managers.

Work themes during the meetings could be: Strengthening the personal identity, building up a feeling of security, relating to culture and values, building up a feeling of belonging somewhere etc.

Status

The project is completed.

The project is financially supported by the Egmont Foundation.

Contact

• Director of Centre, Ph.D Lilian Zoellner, , Centre for Suicide Research

The project is subject to follow-up research which will be carried through by Director of Centre for Suicide Research, Ph.D Lilian Zoellner.

Opening hours

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