Who is @ease? Visitors' characteristics and working method of professionally supported peer-to-peer youth walk-in centres, anonymous and free of charge
Open accessAbstract
Aim: Although mental disorders often emerge early in life, only a minority of young people receive timely and appropriate mental health care. A worldwide youth mental health movement aims to prevent development and persistence of psychiatric disorders. As part of this movement, the first four @ease centres were opened in the Netherlands. @ease is a youth driven, professionally supported initiative, providing peer‐to‐peer counselling, anonymous and free of charge, for people aged 12–25. Methods: Data consist of a detailed description of the working method of @ease, combined with characteristics of all young people accessing the services between its inception (January 2018) and July 2020. Results: Young‐adult peers, including experts by experience, served as counsellors after training in listening, motivational interviewing and solution‐focused strategies. They were supervised by a diverse group of healthcare professionals. A total of 291 visitors, aged 21 on average, were satisfied to very satisfied with @ease's services. Psychosocial distress, social functioning and quality of life measures at first visit showed moderate to severe levels of impairment, and almost half of all visitors reported skipping classes. One third reported parental mental illness, 28% suicidal ideations, and 11% had made specific plans. Less than a third of visitors had received mental health care in the 3 months prior to their visit. Conclusion: This study showed the need for and feasibility of a youth driven, professionally supported organization offering peer‐to‐peer counselling in the Netherlands. Its flexible and individualized working method enables @ease to normalize problems when possible and intervene when necessary.
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The Friendship Bench concept is the best known example of using human resources to build context-appropriate mental health care; use of volunteers and peer workers in new youth primary care services has been a creative response to difficulty assembling professional clinical workforces even in high-resource settings.
“The Friendship Bench concept 390 is the best known example of this strategy; however, the use of volunteers and peer workers in new youth primary care services has been a creative response to the difficulty in assembling professional clinical workforces and structures that occurs even in high-resource settings.”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [296]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIndependent and in-house evaluations have found that integrated youth mental health-care services are associated with high satisfaction rates among young people.
“Independent and in-house evaluations have found that integrated youth mental health-care services are associated with high satisfaction rates among young people, 288,296,306,310,313 are cost-effective, 288 and offer a range of benefits: increased help-seeking behaviours and enhanced access to care; inclusion of marginalised and at-risk populations such as Indigenous people and LGB”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [296]
In @ease Netherlands, there is high diversity and complexity of need at entry.
“High diversity and complexity of need at entry”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [296]
In @ease Netherlands, there was statistically significant improvement in symptoms and functioning post-treatment.
“statistically significant improvement in symptoms and functioning post-treatment”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [296]
The Results report psychosocial distress and social functioning at visitors’ first @ease visit, not changes after treatment. A search for post-treatment improvement and follow-up outcomes found no passage reporting a statistical comparison of symptoms or functioning. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn @ease Netherlands, 33·3% of users improved clinically and 39·6% reliably improved (SOFAS); 43·2% improved to a better clinical category and 28·4% improved reliably (CORE-10).
“33·3% of users improved clinically and 39·6% reliably improved (SOFAS); 43·2% improved to a better clinical category and 28·4% improved reliably (CORE-10)”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [296]
The Results (@ease questionnaire data; page unavailable) report visitors’ CORE-10 and SOFAS scores, but not changes in those scores or rates of clinical or reliable improvement. The paper’s 28.4% figure refers to visitors who expressed suicidal thoughts, not CORE-10 improvement. Searches for the four claimed improvement percentages and follow-up outcomes found no supporting passage. (LLM, conf=0.77)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Leijdesdorff, S. M. J., Rosema, S., Klaassen, R. M. C., Popma, A., & van Amelsvoort, T.
- Affiliations
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Levvel (NL)
- Amsterdam University Medical Centers (NL)
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNS) Maastricht University Maastricht the Netherlands
- Corresponding author
- Leijdesdorff, Sophie M. J.
- Venue
- Early Intervention in Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2022-03-27
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1391-1397
- ISSN
- 1751-7885 (ISSN-L)
- 1751-7893
- PMC
- PMC10078703
- OpenAlex
- W4220793613
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 4.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Early Intervention in Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Innovatiefonds Zorgverzekeraars
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mental Health and Patient Involvement
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Keywords
- youth mental health, walk-in centres, service attributes, service delivery models, expert by experience, motivational interviewing, psychosocial distress, suicidal ideation, parental mental illness, help-seeking, service satisfaction
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Mental Disorders, Counseling, Health Personnel, Humans, Peer Group, Quality of Life
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