Case study
Enhancing mental health support for young people with chronic physical conditions
YPMH (The Foundation for Young People’s Mental Health)
Impact
Facilitated multidisciplinary conversations with experts across the mental health ecosystem enabled YPMH to gain a deeper understanding of the key contexts and challenges in providing support to young people with chronic physical conditions.
YPMH now has a clear direction and plan to engage with charities to improve the support available in this area.
Impact
Facilitated multidisciplinary conversations with experts across the mental health ecosystem enabled YPMH to gain a deeper understanding of the key contexts and challenges in providing support to young people with chronic physical conditions.
YPMH now has a clear direction and plan to engage with charities to improve the support available in this area.
The challenge
As part of a previous collaboration with lfM, YPMH and lfM Engage convened experts from across the mental health ecosystem to consider innovations that could enhance the mental health of children and young people. Through these workshops, a range of unmet needs were identified, including the lack of knowledge across the population of the complex risk factors and mechanisms of depression in young people. One of the unmet needs identified through this initial collaboration was that young people with chronic physical conditions are more likely to experience mental health challenges and have an increased risk of developing depression.
The approach
Through using strategic roadmapping as a framework to facilitate discussions, YPMH and lfM Engage hosted a workshop to explore the unmet need with experts from across the mental health ecosystem, including clinicians involved in the treatment pathway. The workshop was held online to enable healthcare professionals from different locations, and with limited available time, to collaborate easily and efficiently.
Charlotte Catignani, Innovation and Partner Engagement Manager at YPMH, highlighted the benefits of this approach. She said: “The interactive online workshop setting enabled seamless collaboration between mental health experts across an array of locations. We gained insights into the individual treatment contexts of each of the participants, including variations across hospitals.
“We quickly saw that the gold standard of treatment for the NHS was to have a psychologist embedded in the team to support people with chronic physical conditions. As this standard is in place, there was a consensus that innovations would be more effective if they focussed on other organisations involved in providing support, with charities being top of the list.
“It was clear from the workshop that while there is often mental health provision in the NHS for young people with chronic conditions, there is an opportunity to provide more holistic support for these young people by working with organisations specialising in their conditions.
“Since the workshop we have mapped the most prevalent chronic conditions and charities associated with delivering support to young people – something that isn’t easily accessible for this context. We are now approaching these charities to look at ways we can support them including tailoring educational support and developing tools for them.”
The results
- The online roadmapping workshop enabled experts across the mental health ecosystem to collaborate, sharing their perspectives and insights.
- An action plan informed by key mental health experts on tools that can be developed to enhance support.
- Additional research has been initiated to identify existing support mechanisms and understand the impact of different conditions and lifestyle factors.
Feedback from participants
“The workshop was a genuinely exciting thing to be a part of, with a real mix of experiences, expertise and backgrounds. I felt like I could meaningfully contribute to the session and also learnt a lot myself. The toolkit (combined with session facilitation) was a great way to get the most out of everyone involved.”
Katherine Parkin, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge
“The workshop provided a collaborative space for various leaders to lend their expertise when brainstorming solutions for depression in young people. With a sensitive balance between structure and flexibility, we were given the conditions to think freely while covering every important angle.”
Manu Sidhu, MD, founder of The MindTech podcast and founder in residence, Zinc VC
“The workshop was a genuinely exciting thing to be a part of, with a real mix of experiences, expertise and backgrounds. I felt like I could meaningfully contribute to the session and also learnt a lot myself. The toolkit (combined with session facilitation) was a great way to get
the most out of everyone involved.”
Katherine Parkin, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge
“The workshop was a genuinely exciting thing to be a part of, with a real mix of experiences, expertise and backgrounds. I felt like I could meaningfully contribute to the session and also learnt a lot myself. The toolkit (combined with session facilitation) was a great way to get
the most out of everyone involved.”
Katherine Parkin, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge
About YPMH (The Foundation for Young People’s Mental Health)
YPMH is a charity that works towards a better future for young people, where mental health problems are significantly reduced in prevalence and severity. They strive to:
- Reduce the number of young people who experience mental health problems, particularly depression and anxiety.
- Help young people enter adulthood with greater resilience to mental health conditions.
- Reduce the number of young people who take their own lives.
To find out more, visit the YPMH website.
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