As in any September, from today the Sweden Churches will be working at the “month of deaconship” that this year will be focussed on mental disorders, especially those of children and adolescents. “An increasing problem in today’s society is the mental disorders of more and more children and adolescents, but, despite this, it is a taboo, it’s hard to talk about it, and the meaning of each diagnosis is largely unknown”, explains Bear Cedersjö, coordinator of the initiative, who mentions a few figures: “Three people out of four experience a mental disorder or live with relatives who suffer from a mental disorder. 7% of the calls made to Bris (a helpline) are about suicide, and there’s an average of 8 thousand attempted suicides a year in Sweden”. That’s why it is “part of the mission of the Churches to help respond to such challenge”. Lots of materials have been posted on the website of the Council, and more will be added during the month, to help young people, families and communities recognise and deal with this dimension of young people’s malaise. The guiding principle of the videos, texts and interviews is “meeting the human being with respect”, by placing oneself on a par with them, “at eye level”. In addition, the website of the Council announced that 2017 will see the end of a research project about young people’s mental disorders that was started in 2012 by a number of Swedish research centres, funded with 300 million Swedish krona.