An increase in children with mental health problems
Over the last 20 years the developments in mental health among children and young people have been negative. There is a significant increase in the amount of children and young people with psychiatric symptoms and disorders. The symptoms can be loneliness, stress and self-harm and psychiatric disorders like ADHD, eating disorders, depression and anxiety (report from The Council on Health and Disease Prevention).

This is not only a severe problem for the well-being of the individual child and his/her opportunity to get an education and future employment. It is also a problem for society as a whole.

Great potential for interdisciplinary collaboration at Aarhus University
At Aarhus University we want to improve the mental health of Danish children and young people by joining forces from different research areas. We aim to integrate AU research fields that at complementary levels have reached levels to provide a good chance to move our understanding forward. This goes for economy, primary care health, education and well fare care research as well as computer science.