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Dr Bina Ram, Research Fellow in the Division of Psychiatry and affiliated with the Mohn Centre for Children's Health and Wellbeing, shares her experience of working with the Youth Community Researchers who supported her research on young people’s mental health.

My research focuses on child and adolescent mental health, particularly schools-based policies, practices, and interventions that aim to improve mental health of children and young people (CYP). I work with schools, voluntary and community organisations, and underserved communities to take an inclusive approach that ensures my research has real-world impact and contributes to highlighting the importance of fair and accessible mental health support and services for all young people.

The NHS 10 Year Health Plan commits to expanding digital access to mental health support through the NHS App and prioritises the evaluation of digital therapies for CYP, particularly for those waiting for specialist services. Getting access to evidence-based digital interventions for mental health could mean earlier access to treatment, support self-management, reduce waiting times, and extend the reach of NHS mental health care for CYP. However, our NIHR funded research finds that there is low uptake of digital mental health interventions (delivered through apps) among CYP in North West London, especially among boys and some ethnic groups.

Through two focus group workshops with young people, we wanted to identify the barriers that they experience in accessing online mental health resources, to help inform strategies that may improve uptake of digital mental health apps. I worked in partnership with the Earls Court Youth Club, and Parkside Studio College, from where CYP were recruited for the workshops.

To ensure we elicited rich insights from CYP, I worked with young people who were trained to be Youth Community Researchers (YCRs) to design, plan, and facilitate the workshops, under the guidance of myself, Esta Orchard, and Yusuf Ibrahim. I met with the YCRs to discuss the aim of the workshops, and they worked together to design a session plan of activities and discussions to meet the aims. We met again to discuss, refine and finalise the plan. To provide the YCRs with an opportunity for practical research experience, they led the sessions right from the start through to the end, taking responsibility for making everyone feel welcome, that the aims of the workshop were shared upfront, and ensuring everyone was introduced and comfortable. They did an outstanding job throughout and, importantly, they quickly became aware of the quieter participants. The YCRs were highly effective at bringing them into discussions in a comfortable way, ensuring everyone contributed and had their voice heard.

Key themes from the workshops

Participants in one of the workshops were mainly boys, which was particularly useful given our previous findings. Our discussions around mental health led by YCRs in an open, comfortable and safe space provided important insights. A number of boys talked about stereotypes of ‘being a man’, and that for boys, talking about mental health was not culturally accepted. At the end of the session, one boy approached a facilitator and said, “thank you – I didn’t realise I needed that.”

Three overarching themes emerged from both workshops. The first was around lack of promotion of mental health apps. There were very few apps, if any, that young people had heard of. The older age group shared that they were told about the charity Childline at primary school, but during their time at secondary school, they were not given any direction/signposting on how to access digital mental health resources. Both groups highlighted that schools should be doing more by way of promoting mental health apps, and demonstrating to students how to use and navigate them.

The second theme was around parents’ lack of knowledge around mental health; many young people shared that their parents did not talk about mental health openly and would not be aware of apps. This became a barrier for young people, not only about talking to their parents about mental health, but also that their parents would not be aware of online resources that are available to help them with navigating these.

The third theme, consistent among young people in both workshops, was that for their mental health challenges, they overwhelmingly preferred “human connection” which apps do not provide, and may be contributing to the lack of uptake of digital resources among young people.

The discussions were captured through ‘visual minutes’ created by Raquel Duran, an illustrator from More than Minutes. Together with the young people and YCRCs, we co-produced these outputs to reflect young people’s views on the barriers faced by them in accessing digital mental health apps. These visual formats allow an easy and accessible way to share these findings widely to different audiences.

Peer-led research

For me, working alongside YCRs on this project has effectively demonstrated that peer-led engagement can enhance the inclusivity and quality of the insights gathered from young people. Having young people lead sessions with their peers about a sensitive topic, reinforced how important it is for young people to have the opportunity to speak about their mental health with others similar in age who understand their cultural and social experiences, who are similarly growing up in a digital world, and are also navigating issues where human connection is important. Seeing young people lead conversations strengthens my belief that their voices are valuable and essential to developing accessible support that truly reflects their needs.

More information

If you want to know more about mental health apps for young people, take a look at the website and look out for our upcoming publications.

The Youth Community Researcher Programme

Youth Community Researchers are young people from the local community who act as a vital bridge between child health researchers and the communities they serve. Recruited in partnership with Ealing and Hounslow CVS and Earl's Court Youth Club, YCRs undertake a two-day training programme delivered by the Association for Young People's Health (AYPH), equipping them with the skills and confidence to actively participate in and support health research. Once trained, they take on a range of meaningful roles, advising on recruitment materials to make them more accessible and engaging for younger audiences, promoting research studies at community events, helping to facilitate focus groups, and supporting the recruitment of participants to ongoing research studies at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø. The programme is proudly supported by the Mohn Centre for Children's Health and Wellbeing and NHS England's Research Engagement Network, ensuring that young people are not just the subjects of health research, but active and empowered contributors to it.