Early Recognition and Interventions for Mental Health in School-Aged Children in Finland : The Role of Nurses in a Collaborative Practice

Mental health problems in school-aged children are becoming more common in many countries. Finding these problems early and giving support in time is very important for children’s well-being and for avoiding serious problems in the future. This study looked at the role of school nurses in Finland in early identifying mental health problems and giving individual support to children. It also focused on how nurses work together with schools, health care services and social workers. A systematic literature review was done by using CINAHL, PubMed and Medline data- bases. The studies published between 2020 and 2025 were selected, and they were about nursing interventions, early identification and teamwork in Finnish school set- tings. In total, six studies were included. These studies used quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. The results show that school nurses have an important role in noticing children’s men- tal health problems. Many problems are found during regular health check-ups, from teachers’ observations, or when students come to ask for help by themselves. Nurses help children by giving personal support, arranging referrals when it is needed, and working together with the student welfare team. Good support usually focuses on the child, includes the family and has follow-up after the first help. However, the studies also show some difficulties, such as lack of re- sources, heavy workload for nurses and long waiting time to get specialised mental health services. In conclusion, this study shows that using different ways to find mental health problems early and having good cooperation between professionals are very important. It also suggests that school health services should continue to improve nurses’ training, make cooperation clearer between different services, and offer support services that are easy for children to access, so that children can get help more easily and on time.