Protocol: (InvolvMe) Children and young people with mental illness: theory and practice in development of Norwegian national guidelines

Mental health workers are required to base their practice on national evidence-based guidelines supplemented by other sources of summarized research of good quality. In Norway, national guidelines within this area is developed by the Norwegian Directorate of Health. Advice and recommendations provided in these guidelines is intended to help health personnel and patients to make good decisions, help reduce unwanted variation and promote good quality in health and care services. 

Guidelines of good quality are important for patient safety. Many different actors produce guidelines, ranging from local hospitals, professional organizations and national authorities. Research has shown that guidelines intended to cover the same patients and treatments may vary in their recommendations. In acknowledgement of this, international quality criteria for guidelines have been developed (AGREE). In Norway, the Norwegian Directorate of Health has also published their own manual for guideline development based on these international standards to ensure a systematic, transparent, and robust development process. According to these standards an evidence-based guideline should include findings from systematic reviews of research evidence of good quality. Furthermore, recommendations coming out of the guideline should take into account the views of clinical experts and patients. 

The objective of this project is to explore the “state-of- the art” of national guidelines for treatment of mental illness in children and young people in Norway, and to identify barriers and facilitators to developing evidence-based guidelines. 

1.2 Research questions and hypotheses, theoretical approach and methodology
We propose two research questions:
1. What is the quality of Norwegian national guidelines for treating mental illness in children and young people in regard to international standards for evidence-based guidelines? To allow for comparison with national guidelines of other similar health systems, we will appraise the national guidelines published in Denmark and Sweden.
2. What are the barriers and facilitators to producing evidence-based guidelines for treatment mental illness in children and youth?