Multilevel (mental) health promotion as social innovation in peripheral areas of Denmark: reflections on a local initiative targeting vulnerable young mothers

This paper provides preliminary insights into an ongoing research project focused on marginalized young mothers and mental health initiatives in two peripheral islands of Denmark (Lolland and Falster). The municipalities on the Islands are struggling with a concentration of (mental) health problems and have experienced a marked population decrease in recent years. One of the central drivers of change has been, that resourceful citizens leave the islands and the less well of (the relatively seen immobile) stay. This creates the foundation for municipal cutbacks and puts pressure on the provision of local welfare state services at the same time as the number of welfare clients are increasing. To grasp the complexities in understanding the local initiative this paper is grounded in a multilevel perspective on health promotion and addresses perspectives on the work done from the strategic, bureaucratic level over the front line welfare professionals’ practices to the young mother’s experiences. The paper aligns a multilevel approach to theories of social innovation. This forms a fundament for discussing ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ multilevel health promotion and analysing the interwoven connections between different level and practices involved in the project ‘young mother – in job or education’.