Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing

Mental health problems typically develop at the critical age between 12 and 25 years and if left untreated can have serious social and developmental consequences leading to poorer prognosis and greater disability over the life course. This highlights the importance of providing timely treatment and developing special services for youth focusing on improving long term mental health through ensuring consistency in care. However, the current organisation of mental health services in the UK and worldwide means that young people typically attend a children's service until the age of 18 but at that point must transfer to adult care without any support to make the transition. This raises serious concerns about the quality of services offered to young people at the most vulnerable stage of their lives.

These concerns have highlighted globally the need for the reform of mental health services so that they are developmentally appropriate and responsive to the needs of youth. In response to this, various national and international associations have been established to promote the health and wellbeing of young people. However, these groups work in isolation and fail to integrate partners from diverse disciplines and organisations to exchange knowledge and best practice in this field. The proposed seminar will bridge this gap by creating a multi-disciplinary network of national and international leading experts in youth mental health to:
1. identify the big questions around youth mental health and highlight challenges in systems change related to the development of youth friendly mental health services
2. highlight exemplars of new and ongoing research and best practice in youth mental health
3. generate consensus on what the gold standard of a "youth mental health model" should consist of
4. promote public and professional interest and awareness around youth mental health issues and the importance of developing targeted, evidence based mental health services for young people
5. raise awareness of the importance of stigma reduction as a way to maximise service use, treatment adherence and positive peer relationships
This network was initiated by a UK and Irish group of national and international academics, practitioners, researchers and service users who share the same vision of improving mental health outcomes for young people. The applicants have built upon their expertise to develop in consultation with young people a seminar programme on key themes of youth mental health including: a) youth mental health and stigma b) e-health and new technologies for youth mental health and c) the development of youth friendly mental health services.
The seminar will comprise nine one day events over a three year period including talks by leading experts and poster presentations by PhD students and early career researchers followed by discussion groups to promote dialogue, debate and decision making. The seminars will be held in different geographical locations in the UK and Ireland to reflect the international nature of our work and enable wider participation.
Year 1
1. Stigma and prejudice: Advances in theory and research (Nottingham December 2014)
2. E-mental health: What is happening and where are we heading? (Surrey May 2015)
3. Mapping out existing and new service models and systems of care for youth (Ireland August 2015)
Year 2
1. The experience of public stigma and self-stigma in young people (Dublin December 2015)
2. The use of technology to promote young people's mental health: National and international innovations (Nottingham May 2016)
3. Theoretical models of service change and their application to youth mental health (Birmingham September 2016)
Year 3
1. Interventions to tackle stigma and discrimination (London December 2016)
2. E-mental health and young people: Challenges and ways of moving forward (Surrey May 2017)
3. Youth Mental Health: Moving towards a gold standard service model (Birmingham September 2017)

Various youth mental health associations operate in the UK and Ireland. However, most of these work in isolation with very few initiatives to gather people from diverse disciplines, countries and organisations to exchange knowledge and best practice on key issues in this field. The seminar will bridge this gap by creating a multi-disciplinary network of national and international collaborators which is expected to significantly benefit the following groups:
Researchers
The seminar will foster collaboration and communication regionally, nationally and internationally between researchers and academics from varied disciplines and career stages working towards advancing research in the field of youth mental health. We have secured 15 places for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. It is expected that this group will benefit from inter-disciplinary interactions which will raise theoretical and methodological issues in this field.
Mental health practitioners
Providers of mental health services will benefit through the interactive process of knowledge exchange about best practice internationally. The seminar will raise awareness about system innovations and best models of care and will provide the platform for dialogue on ways of reforming services. This will encourage reflective practice and critical examination of existing systems and whether they address young people's needs. This process of continuous learning will facilitate professional development and improvement.
Primary care providers
The seminar will highlight GPs' important role in the early identification and management of mental illness in youth. GPs will gain knowledge and understanding of issues around help seeking, early detection and the need for collaboration with secondary mental health services to ensure integrated care pathways.
UK and Irish government organisations and policymakers
The seminar will provide the evidence base for the development of mental health services for youth aged 12-25 years. By doing so, it will feed into UK's No Health without Mental Health strategy and Ireland's A Vision for Change policy framework on the importance of commissioning for early intervention to prevent ill health in young people and ensuring youth participation in the redesign of services.
Third sector
Third sector organisations including charities supporting the health and wellbeing of young people and their families will be able to use our work to support their own initiatives. The seminar will bring together academic and non academic partners providing opportunities for charities to develop valuable collaborations.
Young people and carers
Young people and their families will directly benefit through participation in the delivery of seminars. Talks on the lived experiences of young people will ensure that their voices are heard. Young people will gain valuable knowledge about the importance of self-determination in achieving their own health needs which will instil empowerment. The seminar will place young people at the forefront of change as leaders of necessary reforms.
Funders
The seminar will produce new research agendas and highlight to funders of health research the need for a dedicated funding scheme on youth mental health supporting international collaborations.
Industry
Our seminars on e-mental health will most likely attract the attention of the industry and will open the communication channels for collaboration with universities and the health sector.
Learned Societies/professional membership bodies
Our activities will be of interest to the British and Irish Psychological Society both of which will be informed about our work and outputs. Representatives from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Irish College of GPs will be invited to participate in our seminars. Our work will inform guidelines and recommendations published by these bodies in relation to young people's health services.