62695Artificial Intelligence as a tool to combat Adolescent Anxiety during Covid-19ClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKTHE direct physical impact of covid-19 on children seems to be less severe than on adults, but indirect and hidden consequences will have a lasting effect particularly for adolescents who have experienced many months of disruption to their education, social development and now their future career prospects as the UK faces economic downturn. In a survey by Young Minds 83% of adolescents said their anxiety had worsened as a result of Covid-19 whilst access to counselling support has all but stopped. The loss of relationships and social interaction at this age is also far more likely to have a long term impact on confidence and self esteem whilst changes to education grading has resulted in many young people worrying for their futures. There is little research into the long-term mental health effects of large-scale disease outbreaks in adolescents and that there is a need to monitor young people's mental health status over the long term, and to study how prolonged school closures, strict social distancing measures, and the pandemic itself affect them. We propose to build on our existing world leading work in AI mental health support to develop and scale a COVID specific anxiety tool for adolescents. This tool will be made available through schools and provide access to clinically written support dealing with uncertainty, worry, anxiety, relationships and future concerns as well as bespoke signposting to those services still offering onward support. We will offer access to the platform for free through schools online class access until the schools reopen ensuring that young people are supported throughout this outbreak. With built in analytics we will be able to use non-identifiable patient data to track and understand more about the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of young people. This will add to our growing understanding of adolescent mental health and could serve to improve our care pathways in Child and Adolescent Mental Health services which were struggling with demand prior to the outbreak WYSA are already global impact leaders in AI for mental health with the number one mental health AI bot on ORCHA. We will utilise this expert knowledge to ensure an adolescent product that can have a real and tangible effect for young people during this pandemic and beyond.