Academy

Together for Every Child’s Mental Wellbeing

Mind the Child

Bosnian-Herzegovinian integrative child and adolescent psychotherapeutic association – BHIDAPA is beginning the implementation of the project “Mind the Child: Together for Every Child’s Mental Wellbeing”. This project is being realized in key partnership with UNICEF, and is financially supported by the European Union and the Joint Swiss-UN program.

Implementation encompasses cooperation with relevant sector ministries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the goal of strengthening the system and services for mental health of children and adolescents.

About the Project

The project emerged as a response to the needs of the child protection system, which still faces challenges in providing timely and coordinated responses and early recovery in crisis situations, especially for children in vulnerable life circumstances. By strengthening the cooperation of the educational, health and social sectors, and through shared understanding of child protection in the context of mental health and psychosocial support, this project strives to create a sustainable, sensitive and evidence-based model of protection, a model that gives priority to early support, builds trust in services and ensures that every child has access to care grounded in safety and wellbeing. The experience of the pandemic has additionally deepened these challenges and emphasized how much mental health is crucial for the overall wellbeing of every child, and how important it is that the system responds preventively and in a coordinated manner.

Precisely for that reason, previous projects of BHIDAPA, UNICEF and sector ministries in BiH, such as Virtual Crisis Interventions Here&Now, Interdisciplinary Network of Experts Here&Now, Let’s Protect Adolescent Girls and THINK ABOUT YOUth, have shown how important it is that different sectors act together and that children and young people are enabled to actively participate in processes that concern them.

Research conducted within these initiatives (Badurina & Hadžić, 2022) indicates an increase in insecure attachment patterns in children, often associated with early traumatic experiences and insufficient institutional support. This additionally confirms the need for systems that promote early intervention, support based on interdisciplinary diagnostics and treatment, as well as building trust between children, parents/guardians and institutions.

During 18 months, through research, specialized education and training, as well as supervisory support, this project strives to improve the child protection system in the context of mental health and psychosocial support.

Special emphasis will be placed on:

  • Research with the aim of joint definition and understanding of the concept of child protection with active participation of young people in designing solutions;
  • Strengthening the capacity of professionals from education, health and social protection to act in crisis and traumatic situations;
  • Development of trauma response and introduction of early, interdisciplinary diagnostics and treatment;
  • Empowering local communities for crisis interventions in the community.

The project is aligned with key documents and international standards and recommendations, including the Roadmap for Deinstitutionalization of Children 2023–2030, the INSPIRE strategy (WHO & UNICEF), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Sarajevo Declaration on Mental Health of Children and Young People (2024) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3, 5, 10, 16).

The project is implemented in the Federation of BiH, Republika Srpska and Brčko District, with the aim of supporting the construction of a sustainable, interdisciplinary and intersectoral model of child protection, which is founded on rights, professional standards and community needs.

It is aligned with key strategic documents and international standards: the Roadmap for Deinstitutionalization of Children 2023–2030, the INSPIRE strategy (WHO & UNICEF, 2016), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Sarajevo Declaration on Mental Health of Children and Young People (2024), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3, 5, 10 and 16).

The implementation of the project is led by the BHIDAPA team which gathers professionals from the fields of health and psychological sciences, psychology, European accredited psychotherapists, educators and supervisors, as well as experts from the fields of economics and communications.

Team

Distinguished Experts

Together with UNICEF, the European Union, the Joint Swiss-UN programme and the competent ministries in BiH, we are dedicated to creating safer, more resilient and more compassionate communities for every child.

A community is as strong as every child within it is protected.