All children and young people are a huge resource. We have never had such well-educated and competent youngsters in the Nordic countries as we do today. At the sametime there are all the more young persons who claim to be suffering from mental illness, and young persons who, for various reasons, risk ending up in vulnerable situations.

Growing mental illness amongst young people is one of the most serious public health challenges facing our Nordic society.

The project Youth in the Nordic Region focuses on young persons who suffer from or are at risk of suffering from mental illness, as well as their situation at school and their later transition to work and providing for themselves. A further important topic of the project is early retirement and retirement on mental health grounds amongst young adults.

As part of the project we have produced reports which shed light on various aspects of these areas. The report you are holding in front of you aims to give a quick, clear overview of who does what in Sweden in matters concerning young persons who suffer from or risk suffering from mental illness, and end up in long-term unemployment and with no meaningful purpose in life.

We have produced summaries of all the Nordic countries plus Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland. We would like to point out to our readers that the summaries do not include everything that is done and that important and useful contributions may be lacking.