Re

Good example

Cross-sectoral organisation and cooperation - A unique aspect of the organisation of Safe Community in Re

 

Good cross-sectoral organisation of Safe Community in Re - an important success factor in injury prevention at work. The management group was established in 2006, consisting of the political and administrative management of the municipality: Mayor (chairman), councillor, municipal managers, municipal councillors, sheriff and the Safe Community’s coordinator. The stability of the organisation has been of great importance for the development of the Safe Community model in Re with a high level of commitment from the mayor and management group. This has been key to the efficiency of the decision-making and financial control. The coordinator’s position in the staff hierarchy has led  to a wider grasp and implementation of the Safe Community model in the various municipal companies. That’s because  coordination from this staff's position provides a more credible status, along with a clearer overview as to which areas of injury prevention should be improved, than if the task were coordinated from a lower link in the organisation. This position will then be considered as part of the specific company’s operational structure and thus decrease the risk of being neutral. The organisational distance to leading politicians will also be greater with a sector manager in command.

 

SMART upbringing - prevention of mental health problems and substance abuse

 

SMART upbringing - a successful project as part of the work to prevent mental health problems and substance abuse in the Re municipality's growth sector. The Safe Community’s coordinator participates in various multidisciplinary thematic groups related to SMART. This is the largest holistic multidisciplinary initiative in Re, with a focus on changing culture and the way people meet children and adolescents through creating social innovation within the growth sector. The success of Re has led to an excessive demand in Norway. SMART’S website has almost 500 daily visitors, with an average of 9 clicks per person. The web-shop has sold over 5000 books along with other requisites for the growing sector across 270 different places in Norway. Many people have also visited Re to receive coaching and the Re team has travelled around the country to share its ideas and teachings. 500 people have received coaching in the last two months alone. Smart has also begun to spread worldwide. In the following countries; Hungary, Estonia. Denmark, Finland, Spain, Belgium, India, South Africa, Uganda and Portugal, SMART is becoming increasingly popular and some of the material has been translated into various languages.

 

SMART upbringing is similar to Safe Community’s grasp in the municipal council and is managed by the councillor’s leaders. The entire municipality's growth sector cooperates in several cross-sectoral teams with participants from kindergartens, schools, health care and child welfare services to develop a common strength-based language to accommodate children and adolescents. With SMART, a set of shared values has been created between the companies where acknowledging relationships have been the most important factor in building strong multidisciplinary teams. Teams who work together in total cooperation. People lower their natural barriers and are more eagerly engaged in listening and cooperating as they no longer feel the need to defend themselves.

 

With a strength-based focus throughout childhood and adolescence, the goal is to develop a more robust (resilient) mental health. Results are already visible. Child welfare costs have dropped approx. 8 million since 2014. It is the result of a combination of improvement in case management and the development of SMART Child Welfare. The Youth data survey from 2017, compared with Youth data 2013, shows that several municipalities have a negative development in mental health. Re shows the opposite trend. We score better in areas involving mental health and relationships between adults and children. Parents give their children more praise, they are more engaged in their homework and school work. The children are more satisfied with their school results and there are fewer conflicts within the school’s grounds. The number of children who report bullying has decreased by more than half! The faith in the future has been regained, and fewer people find that everything is a waste, while the number of unhappy and depressed teens has fallen. In particular, the number of young people who feel lonely has dropped from 25% to 18%. In other words, Re is not part of the "trend of further increase of mental disorders from 2013 to 2017", but part of the "local variations" that have a positive development in relation to mental health. This, in turn, could reduce the risk of suicide among young people, simply because it creates a new and enhanced relationship-rich environment that in turn facilitates an improved and safe life. We expect the effect of the work to continue to increase over time because we believe there is still a great unprecedented potential for innovation waiting to be triggered. An ongoing body of PHD work means we will contribute to this. Here, children, young people and adults are invited to actively participate in research on their own personal lives.