An interdisciplinary team consisting of five researchers from Malmö and Lund University and Region Gävleborg completed in early 2022 the preliminary study for a four-year study of Ommej, with the aim of seeking knowledge how such a tool can support children's rights to participation and how it can be integrated in practice.
The project, which was funded by Forte, has so far shown that the majority of users included in the study were positive about Ommej and that children's participation increased when using the app. When the children had to formulate the problem themselves, they got to the core problem more quickly, the researchers stated.
The research team consists of:
- Professor Nancy Russo (scientific leader), Department of Computer Science and Media Technology, Malmö University. Research: Information technology and Smart health.
- Docent Björn Hofvander, clinical psychology, dept. child and adolescent psychiatry, Lund University. Research: Developmental psychology and acting out behavior.
- Associate professor Annika Staaf, social work, specialization in law, Malmö University. Research: Social law, especially children's law.
- Technology Dr. Jeanette Eriksson, Department of Computer Science and Media Technology, Malmö University. Research: Software engineering and how digital artefacts can be designed to promote health and well-being.
- Dr. Karin Tillberg-Mattson, research leader at R&D Welfare, Region Gävleborg, who works with practical studies in social services, preferably in the area of children and young people.
Click below to read the full study.
Impact – The businesses' own evaluations
The same conclusion as in the aforementioned research studies has been drawn by the businesses themselves. Internal evaluations have shown that the implementation of Ommej in daily work creates a shortcut to the child's core problems and greater opportunities to treat these faster and more precisely.
An independent evaluation carried out by a Swedish municipality after implementing Ommej in a pilot showed that just by using the app for a first screening with a child, they saved SEK 20,000 per occasion. By enabling the children to share what worried them and what they wanted help with, but also highlighting indicated risks that the children reported but did not label as a problem, one or more mapping calls could be saved while identifying problems with higher accuracy and created a basis for better interventions.
Alongside the direct effects of using Ommej, the municipality also noted a number of indirect effects, also considerable. As previously described, shorter evaluation time and more effective treatment make it possible to prevent the development of more serious conditions and have the potential to slow down the development of mental illness, which would otherwise cause greater trauma both for the individual child, his family and his environment and require long-term resources from society , often over a lifetime. In addition to this, far-reaching opportunities were also seen to reinvest the saved resources freed up through the use of Ommej in further improved, more precise efforts and thus create a positive snowball effect. In summary, the municipality concluded that the combined effects of Ommej had the potential to save millions of kroner per child. Shortly thereafter, the municipality decided to implement the service across all its operations.
