Meet PhD-fellow Maren Helene Rinke Storetvedt
One of UngMeistring’s two doctorates is Maren Helene Rinke Storetvedt. She will research the development and effect of online and game-based treatment programs for children and young people with ADHD. This week we have taken a closer look at what she will be working on and research in the next few years.
UngMestring is a project that will develop digital treatment and self-help programs for children and young people with ADHD, anxiety, depression or eating disorders. The aim is to increase access to knowledge-based mental health services for children and young people between the ages of 13 and 18. The project started in 2022 and will last for 4 years. You can read more about UngMeistring here.
-Why did you want to be a part of UngMeistring?
– I had heard positive things about the research centre’s work with digital health services and was very interested in working in this field. It is very rewarding to be part of a research environment that works to develop and evaluate healthcare services. For me, it is important that what I work with has useful value, and it is very motivating to carry out research that young people will benefit from, says Storetvedt.
Storetvedt has a bachelor’s degree as a social educator and a master’s degree in health promotion work and health psychology. She also has experience from project work with participation routines at the system level in the knowledge center in Bergen Municipality. She brings her experience into her work, which she is already well into. Storetvedt is now in the primary phase of the development. She has interviewed young people with ADHD to map out what they want and can benefit from in a digital treatment programme.
– This has been an educational and rewarding process. The young people have contributed a lot of valuable insight and I look forward to meeting them again later in the development, says Storetvedt enthusiastically.
The user in focus
To succeed in developing good digital mental health services, collaboration between researchers, clinicians, users, developers and more is required. As a social educator, Storetvedt is passionate about user participation and believes that it is important to work for real participation in service development.
– User participation is central to ensuring that we deliver good and relevant solutions that are actually used. In the project, I will utilise a user-centred framework called “Person-based approach” (PBA) which combines theory and evidence with mapping of the users’ needs and psychological context, says Storetvedt.
I care strongly about everyone having equal access to health services. We know that there are social inequalities in the use of healthcare services, and therefore it is essential that the digital healthcare services are designed and made available in a way that is socially equalising.
PhD-fellow Maren Helene Rinke Storetvedt
-What challenges do you see yourself encountering along the way?
-Digital solutions are here to stay, and therefore it is important to ensure that we can offer safe, knowledge-based solutions that are available to everyone who wants to use them. One challenge we have in the project is digital login. We therefore have to think about how the solution will be delivered in a safe way. This applies in particular to young people who are under legal age in the health service and therefore cannot log in to digital solutions with BankID.
– A PhD course is in itself challenging, and I think it will be important to remind myself that the PhD is a research program, and that I have to put up with feeling a bit of imposter syndrome every now and then. At Forhelse I have many great colleagues who cheer, support and guide me, and I am sure that this will help to make it easier to overcome the challenges that come with a PhD course.