Professionals’ perspectives on barriers to improving psychosocial care for adolescents with emotional and behavioural problems – a concept mapping case study

Objectives Rates of emotional and behavioural problems (EBP) in adolescence are high and rising, increasing pressure on psychosocial care systems. Professionals working in these systems have excellent insights in the measures needed. Of these, the most urgent and implementable ones have already been elucidated. Our current aim was to identify measures and interventions to improve psychosocial care for adolescents with EBP that professionals perceived as highly urgent but not yet feasible to implement, revealing potential barriers for implementation. Methods We used Concept mapping, a participatory mixed-method approach, combining qualitative data collection with quantitative analysis. Overall, 33 professionals from 17 institutions participated. Results Participants proposed 43 measures/interventions, that could be categorized in five clusters. Of these, 13 were identified as highly urgent but not feasible. Most belonged to clusters related to school system changes, improvement of transparency and functioning of the system of care, and legislative conditions for adolescents with EBP. Conclusion Findings highlight implementation challenges related to school systems, workforce capacity, and system fragmentation. Addressing these challenges will require coordinated system-level approaches and long-term commitment to improve adolescent psychosocial care.