Networking and care: helping young people with mental health problems through outreach and ehealth
The aim of this project is to develop a mobile app which facilitates access to mental health services and treatments for young people with mental health problems; and to assess its feasibility, acceptability and potential clinical and cost-effectiveness. If successful, the app would: (1) increase access to mental health care by providing links to relevant existing services; (2) increase access to relevant evidence-based mobile health interventions and to address barriers to care and (3) allow individuals to review services they have used and provide feedback which can be accessed by other app users.

Insufficient awareness of available services and treatments and how to access them, and the stigma associated with using treatment, are two of the most significant barriers to mental health care for young people. As part of the ongoing ERC  APPLAUSE project, we have already collected data from a prospective community cohort of young people and found that among those with mental health problems, 40% wanted help but were not aware of how to get it. Thus, despite perceived need, many young people fail to find support.

The ERC APPLAUSE project cohort provides us with a unique opportunity to understand how and whether the app can change service use patterns. We will randomise cohort participants with mental health problems to intervention and control conditions in order to understand changes in service use in addition to estimating short- and long-term economic impacts associated with the app intervention.

Treatment can enormously improve outcomes for young people with mental health problems. Mental health problems experienced by young people can have many and often serious adverse effects, both early on and across the life-course. This app could help improve access to intervention and support, and hence alter developmental trajectories in a way that could improve the lives of these individuals and generate immediate as well as longer-term societal and economic benefits.