“In the first part of this book, eleven young people write about the difficulties they have had in their lives, and how they have experienced measures that were supposed to help them. It is a shocking read. Services that were supposed to be good help have been experienced as the opposite. Young people who needed to be listened to and understood have felt that adults were not concerned with why they were having such a difficult time. Nor were the adults always interested in hearing their views on what could help.

The stories are naturally one-sided, as all credible stories are. The authors are not looking for objective, cold facts. They show us the services from their perspective, and they know very well that there are other ways of looking at this. They understand that it can be difficult to help, and that legislation and organisation set limits to what can be achieved. But something that is repeated in many of the stories is that they do not fully get to express themselves and do not receive the help they need to feel safe.

The quotes from journals, records and reports show us how great a distance there can be between what professionals are concerned with and what young people themselves experience. Regardless of whether the professionals are right from their perspective, the experiences of young people cannot be without interest. Measures that are experienced as useless are rarely of great help. The experiences, of the past and present, of relations and measures, are often absolutely central to understanding what the problem is about. We need to know of these experiences, even when they do not fit well with the services’ understanding of themselves. Knowledge of how services are experienced by those who will use them is indispensable knowledge for those who want to improve and develop the services.

In the second part of the book, the young people summarise the difficulties that can be experienced in dealing with the systems. This is based on their own experiences, but also on the results of surveys conducted by Changefactory, in which several thousand children and young people in public services have participated. Lastly comes what may be the most important thing in this book: the call to learn from the experiences the young people have had, and proposals for solutions. They want to help the services to meet young people who come after them, in ways that they themselves would like to have been met. They ask for a different form of professionalism than the one they themselves encountered.

The eleven young people therefore deserve congratulations and thanks for wanting to share their experiences with us. It is commendable that they are not content with pointing out what is not working so well, but also come up with proposals for how things can be improved. As I understand them, they are not concerned with getting revenge or redress, but want to do what they can to ensure that services are better for those who come after them. To achieve this, they must explain how things are connected. They must be allowed to describe what they have been subjected to, how they were met, and what is needed to make things better.

Most of the young people appear as authors with names and pictures. This has been each individual’s choice. I can assure the reader that they know what they are doing. Most have been active in Changefactory’s work to convey the views of children and young people on how school, child welfare, police and health services work for them. I know several of them personally through many years of collaboration with Changefactory. The individual author or their guardians have done what they thought was best, without others influencing their choice. We must believe that they themselves know what is best for them.

Changefactory has done pioneering work over the past 20 years by collecting experiences from young people’s contact with public services. There are few countries that can point to anything similar. I am currently a board member of Changefactory and have a special responsibility to ensure that it is safe for children and young people to participate in Changefactory’s many activities. I know the routines and the work the organisation does to ensure that it is safe to participate. The young people who come forward with their names and pictures know what it means. They believe that it is they themselves who should make this choice. I agree with that.

I myself am critical of many of the mediacoverage in which more or less well-known people “come forward” with the ailments they have. This book is about something different and more important. The eleven young authors do not want to get attention or sympathy from others. They are not looking to “give the disease a face” or raise awareness about one or another problem they have struggled with. As I understand it, they present themselves with names and pictures because anonymity does not serve their cause. They would rather be individuals – living people with their own identity, each with their own values ​​and preferences, each with their own personal story and each with their own difficulties. In their encounters with help services, they have experienced to a greater extent that they have been seen as representatives of a group of people, rather than as individuals with unique, personal stories.

I hope that you, who read the book, will be open to the authors’ experiences. They should be food for thought for everyone who works in the support system, and those who are responsible for managing the services. The experiences indicate that it is useful to think a little differently about the services and about those whom the services are intended to help. It seems obvious that the way in which young people are met does not always work as intended.

This is a challenge for all of us. The authors should be commended for doing their part to ensure that students, professionals, leaders and governments can see that much needs to change. But even if much in this book may seem negative, I would like to remind you that we live in good times – and finally take into account what the users of the services think. This is the only way we can change what the help services offer for the better.  In order to do so, the experiences of people must emerge. This must also apply to those who are young and therefore have not always been listened to by those of us who think we are older and wiser. This is an important book that shows both how services can affect children and young people, and how they can be improved.

Les Arcs-sur-Argens, May 2024″

Trond F. Aarre,
specialist in psychiatry and drug and addiction medicine