Young people and criminals and young people with mental illness have been discussed extensively recently. According to psychiatry director Johannes Nordholm, early efforts to support parents reduce the risk of mental illness and crime among young people. He has seen in psychiatry that more and more patients feel insecure in their parental role.

- It can be about how to set boundaries and how children are affected by having mental illness yourself, and if you are also outside the community it can be especially difficult, he says.

“Radicalized environments can become a home”

According to Johannes Nordholm, young people apply for crime is largely due to the weakening of their own family in various ways. The child is looking for an alternative family.

- Young people who do not have contact with present parents or are in contact with adult authorities who are part of the community may then need to apply for some compensation structure. Criminal gangs or radicalized environments can become a place of residence and have parental-like functions, but in a destructive way, they are out of society and go on a contract course towards society.

A safety factor for the children

An increasing number of researchers are interested in the importance of parents in reducing young people's crime and mental illness. A study in Finland shows that when working with so-called interventions, children show fewer psychiatric symptoms.

There are already similar family interventions at the Eastern Hospital, but in Sweden more focus is placed on medical treatment. According to Johannes Nordholm, things can get much better.

- We should have even greater focus on patients who are parents. If parents receive clear support on how they should act as parents, it can be a protective factor for their children to avoid both mental illness and to end up in crime.

How come this kind of effort does not already exist?

- More people have become interested in the role of parents. But the challenge is to create a priority pressure around a parenting effort. But we in the field of psychiatry can clearly develop in this respect. It is clear in the reports that come to the patient board that we do not always work optimally with relatives, he says.