1. Summary in English

On behalf of the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision, the county governors have audited the local authorities’ systematic work on promoting mental health among children and young people pursuant to the Norwegian Public Health Act. The audit revealed that there are inconsistencies in systematic work in many local authorities. These inconsistencies relate to inadequate or outdated overviews of children’s and young people’s mental health and the factors that affect mental health, inadequate management of current issues in the local authorities’ planning and existing initiatives that are not based on identified challenges. The majority of local authorities in Norway do not carry out any internal control of systematic public health work and the local authorities do not ensure an adequate level of continuous development in this work.

Despite shortcomings related to systematics, many local authorities do put children’s and young people’s mental health on the agenda and the audit found that local authorities carry out much better work on public health than previously.

The Norwegian Board of Health Supervision finds that the local authorities that take a systematic, long-term and evidence-based approach to promoting children’s and young people’s mental health are well-supported by local authority management. They ensure that the necessary resources are allocated for public health work and that the work is endorsed at interdisciplinary and intersectoral level. The work is consistent and clearly structured.

Read more about our findings and recommendations in the enclosed report and feel free to contact if you have any questions.