Developing mental health-aware care pathways for children and families

The growing mental health challenges faced by children and families are a widespread European concern. The joint Estonian–Italian–Finnish project Children & Family Mental Well-being in Healthcare (CFMWH) seeks solutions by developing care pathways in which discussing mental health in various family situations becomes a natural part of primary care, specialized healthcare, and both outpatient and inpatient services.

Healthcare professionals play a key role in supporting families’ psychological well-being when they face somatic illness. However, there are still gaps in guidelines, training, and service availability related to mental well-being in these situations. Supporting a child’s mental health, for example when a parent becomes ill, is often overlooked because professionals lack the resources or confidence to assess the family’s overall situation. At the same time, access to mental health services is difficult, and some parents avoid seeking help due to stigma.

The CFMWH project aims to address these challenges by developing care pathways in each partner country to better recognize the mental health needs of children and families. The goal is to integrate mental health into existing care pathways so that addressing it becomes a practical and manageable part of everyday healthcare without overburdening professionals. Earlier intervention in mental health challenges makes support more accessible and sustainable.

At the INVEST Research Flagship Centre, the project is led by Professor of Psychology Kirsi Peltonen.

Changing Healthcare Needs and Growing Mental Health Responsibilities

The CFMWH project originated during the Let’s Talk about Children project, which concluded in January 2026. In that project, the Finnish-developed Let’s Talk about Children method was integrated into the service systems of eight European countries. While the implementation was successful, the project revealed —particularly in Estonia, Italy, and Finland— a broader need to strengthen healthcare professionals’ ability to recognize children’s and families’ mental health as part of routine care.

General practitioners, nurses, and physiotherapists are often the first contact for the family when a parent or child experiences a somatic illness, but current care pathways do not support conversations about mental health, nor do professionals always have the tools to initiate them.

In Finland, legislation requires that children’s needs be considered as part of adult treatment, but time pressures and lack of support often prevent this principle from being realised, especially in emergency and specialized care. In acute or unexpected situations, children frequently miss out on the psychological support they need. These challenges reflect broader European issues in integrating children’s mental health into healthcare systems.

Integrating Mental Health into Basic Healthcare Education

Healthcare needs are constantly evolving, and professionals are expected to take an increasingly holistic approach to patient care. As healthcare systems better recognize the importance of early mental health support, professionals need training that helps them identify and address these issues within existing care pathways.

Current medical and healthcare education still focuses largely on physical health and acute care. Mental health is often treated as a separate area requiring specialized expertise, rather than being integrated into general care pathways. By embedding mental health into routine professional training, the project promotes multidisciplinary and practice-oriented learning that can be directly applied in working life.

The project supports the Erasmus+ programme’s focus on vocational education and training (VET) and provides both current and future healthcare professionals with concrete skills and clear care pathways. The training materials and online course developed within the project offer both theoretical knowledge and practical exercises.

Target groups include professionals in primary and specialised healthcare—doctors, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, and other clinical staff—as well as future healthcare professionals. By combining elements of vocational, higher, and adult education, the project strengthens the connection between healthcare and education and ensures that children’s and families’ mental health becomes part of basic training and continuous professional development.

A Multidisciplinary European Consortium

The CFMWH project brings together five organizations, each with a clear role and expertise in promoting the mental well-being of children and families.

The project is coordinated by the Estonian organization Stories for Impact (SFI), a consultancy specializing in social impact. SFI contributes expertise in service design, evaluation, and impact measurement, ensuring that the developed care pathways and training models are practical, user-centered, and effective.

The other partners are familiar from the Let’s Talk about Children project.

The Estonian organization Peaasjad MTÜ is one of the country’s best-known mental health NGOs, focusing on children’s and young people’s well-being, early support, and reducing stigma. Their strength lies in combining scientific knowledge, community engagement, and advocacy.

In Italy, the project is implemented by the Contatto Association and Niguarda Hospital, which bring strong practical experience in mental health work in hospital and outpatient settings. Through them, the project can develop and test models in real clinical environments where supporting families is often most challenging—and most essential.

The University of Turku and INVEST provide the consortium with a research-based perspective and expertise in developing healthcare professional training. Our role is to ensure that the project’s outputs are pedagogically sound and applicable to both basic and continuing education. We gather information from professionals in each country about how they currently identify children’s and families’ needs, how service systems support this work, and what changes or tools they would find helpful.

Based on this data, we will develop guidelines for improving care pathways, supporting family encounters, and bringing children’s perspectives into discussions. The guidelines will take into account different healthcare contexts, such as outpatient and inpatient care as well as primary and specialized healthcare.

More information: Professor Kirsi Peltonen

Text: Helka Oksanen