Evaluation of the "Let's Get Organized" group intervention to improve time management: protocol for a multi-centre randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Time management skills are essential for living in modern society. People with mental or neurodevelopmental disorders typically have cognitive limitations, including affected time management, which might lead to poor occupational balance, low self-efficacy, and poor parental sense of competence. "Let's Get Organized" (LGO) is a recently developed manual-based group intervention to train time management skills. The aim of this trial is to evaluate the efficiency of the Swedish version of LGO (LGO-S) compared to treatment as usual (individual occupational therapy) to improve time management for adults with impaired time management skills due to mental or neurodevelopmental disorders. Furthermore, to evaluate if the intervention is a cost-effective way to improve the quality of life and time management skills of these individuals, we will conduct a health economic evaluation. METHODS: The trial will have a multi-centre, open, parallel randomised controlled design. A total of 104 adults with cognitive limitations due to mental or neurodevelopmental disorders will be recruited from open psychiatric or habilitation care units. Outcomes will be measured before and after a 10-week intervention, with a follow-up 3 months after completing the intervention. The primary outcome will be self-assessed time management skills. Secondary outcomes will be e.g. self-assessed skills in organisation and planning, regulation of emotions, satisfaction with daily occupations, occupational balance, self-efficacy, and quality-adjusted life years. DISCUSSION: A recent feasibility study has shown promising results for LGO-S, and a randomised trial will provide robust evidence for the possible efficacy of LGO-S in comparison to treatment as usual. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03654248 . Registered on 20 August 2018.

Economic Return on Investment of Parent Training Programmes for the Prevention of Child Externalising Behaviour Problems.

Economic models to inform decision-making are gaining popularity, especially for preventive interventions. However, there are few estimates of the long-term returns to parenting interventions used to prevent mental health problems in children. Using data from a randomised controlled trial evaluating five indicated parenting interventions for parents of children aged 5-12, we modeled the economic returns resulting from reduced costs in the health care and education sector, and increased long-term productivity in a Swedish setting. Analyses done on the original trial population, and on various sized local community populations indicated positive benefit-cost ratios. Even smaller local authorities would financially break-even, thus interventions were of good value-for-money. Benefit-cost analyses of such interventions may improve the basis for resource allocation within local decision-making.

Education-earnings linkage for assessing societal benefits of interventions for children and youth in Sweden / Vínculo educación-ingresos para evaluar los beneficios sociales de las intervenciones para niños y jóvenes en Suecia

Some long-term societal benefits of early psychosocial interventions supporting children and youth at various developmental risks can be estimated with school results as a mediatory. In this paper we develop causal education-earnings links for educational achievement thresholds at the end of the nine-year compulsory school (CS) and the three-year upper secondary school (USS) in Sweden. Gross earnings are calculated with age profiles estimated on micro-level register data for the whole population. We also estimate the indirect costs of education (forgone earnings) with this data and find that they can be ignored. For the base case, we calculate the expected net present value of meeting minimum requirements for transition from CS to a national USS-program to euros112,000 (SEK 1.1 million) and for graduation from such a program to euros163,000 (SEK 1.6 million)

Pueden calcularse algunos de los beneficios sociales a largo plazo de las intervenciones psicosociales precoces que respaldan a los niños y jóvenes con ciertos riesgos evolutivos utilizando los resultados escolares como hilo mediador. En este documento desarrollamos vínculos causales educación-ingresos para los umbrales del logro educativo al finalizar la escuela obligatoria (EO) de nueve años de duración y la escuela secundaria superior (ESS) en Suecia. Se calculan los ingresos brutos con los perfiles de edad estimados en un registro de datos a micronivel para la totalidad de la población. También calculamos los costes educativos indirectos (ingresos no percibidos) con estos datos, y encontramos que pueden ser ignorados. Para el caso básico, calculamos el valor actual neto previsto del logro de los requisitos mínimos para la transición de la EO al programa nacional de ESS de 112,000euros (1.1 millones de coronas suecas) y para la graduación en dicho programa de 163,000euros (1.6 millones de coronas suecas)