Kasvun tuki (Early Interventions) is a topical resource for professionals striving to promote wellbeing of children, adolescents and families. It contains evaluations of psychosocial interventions, which aim to improve psychological and social wellbeing of children, adolescents and families. Kasvun tuki compiles the research literature and shares the information about effectiveness of interventions in a popularized manner.
Reliable, topical and pragmatic information is important especially for the professionals in the municipal and organizational work and for agents responsible for the service systems in the social, health and education sectors. Kasvun tuki promotes decision-making that is grounded on research-based knowledge and helps choosing effective interventions, with which children, adolescents and families can be supported in the best possible way and early enough.
Kasvun tuki is a part of Itla Children’s Foundation.
Kasvun tuki originates from Nordic cooperation
Kasvun tuki -resource was founded in 2014. It was developed as a part of Itla’s Children, adolescents and families in 100 year-old Finland –research and impact program (2013–2017), which was co-funded by Onni and Helmi Karttunen Foundation, MIELI Mental health Finland and the Central Union of Child Welfare.
Later in 2014, Kasvun tuki established NordicDataPrev-network jointly with other Nordic resources (Norwegian Ungsinn, Swedish Metodguiden and Danish Vidensportalen). The network aims to evaluate evidence-based interventions and compile research-based knowledge for the child and family services in Nordic countries and their autonomous regions. Moreover, the aim is to improve information flow to professionals and decision-makers.
In 2017-2019, Kasvun tuki was integrated as a part of the Program to Address Reform in Child and Family Services (LAPE), which was one of the key projects of Sipilä’s government. The program was jointly conducted by MIELI ry. and Itla. In 2017, Finnish parliament granted Itla a noteworthy funding, which ensured continuation for the project.
Evaluation
Each intervention to be evaluated fulfills four inclusion criteria: 1) target group of the intervention is child families (child or parents), 2) the intervention has a theoretical framework, 3) method training is available in Finland and 4) the intervention has an ethical value base.
Impartiality is emphasized in the intervention evaluation work. Scientific editorial board is responsible for the classification of the interventions. Before 2021, the interventions were classified by the scientific committee, which weighed their decision based on proposal drafted by the scientific editor-in-chief. In the future, the evaluations are published and updated as systematic reviews in the Kasvun tuki -journal.
Implementation
Kasvun tuki –implementation work provides support for the child and family service leaders, decision-makers and actors who want to guarantee that the intervention is integrated as a part of routine practice. Kasvun tuki guide for implementation explains concepts and questions that often arise during implementation process of an intervention. It provides research-based knowledge about how an implementation is instigated sustainably.
Implementation tools, such as Nomad, support the decision-making regarding which intervention to choose, its adoption, instigation and maintenance. In addition to these key phases of implementation the context in which the intervention will be used, should be considered. The context of use may refer to framework created by the organizational culture or global phenomena, such as pandemic, which has a major impact on instigation of any intervention.