ARC Outreach Alliance: Young People's Open Minds in Northwest London

AOA Homepage

Young People’s Advisory Group

IMPACT Study

Our Publications

-------------------------------------

Data Infrastructure Project

Routine Mental Health Data

AOA's research team has carried out a detailed mapping exercise of routinely collected data on the mental health needs of young people in NorthWest London (NWL).

This has been followed by the interrogation of these data, uncovering socioeconomic inequalities in contacts with specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), with patterns differing between London Boroughs. We’ve also identified variations in prescribing patterns for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medication by sociodemographic characteristics and between local Boroughs, which we have also written up for publication.

To read our Inequalities in mental health service utilisation by children and young people research paper in full, click the link on the left.

We are collaborating with local authorities, NWL ICB and NHS teams to identify data sources, to discuss findings from analyses, and to explore further opportunities for linking new sources of routine data together.

Working closely with local NHS and local authority stakeholders we have linked data from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS), children’s social care (CSC) with the core of routine NHS data in NWL - the Discover NOW database of over 600,000 young people, and plans to link education data are in progress. These data are being used to better understand mental health challenges faced by young people and barriers to accessing help, including mental health crisis.

Mental health also encompasses positive characteristics, such as “mental health competence”, including prosocial skills (prosocial behaviours and social skills) and skills suited to learning (self-regulation). We are carrying out research to better understand the development of mental health competence, how it might protect young people experiencing adversities and how they these skills might be nurtured.

We recently published a paper on using longitudinal research datasets in the UK and Australia to investigate whether a high level of mental health competence during early adolescence contributed to better health and wellbeing outcomes in late adolescence, coinciding with the global disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To read our Progressing “Positive Epidemiology”: A Cross-national Analysis of Adolescents’ Positive Mental Health and Outcomes During the COVID-19 Pandemic research paper in full, click the image link on the left.

Mental Health Crisis

Routine data to identify risk factors for mental health crisis

The team have analysed information on characteristics of young people and their use of services to identify whether we can predict groups that are most at risk of having a serious mental health problem that endangers themselves or others (a mental health crisis). As more data are linked, a more comprehensive picture of risks for mental health crisis is emerging

Our analysis suggested that young people in mental health crisis had more contact with general practice, A&E, outpatients, inpatients, and social care in the two years before their first crisis compared to other young people. These findings highlight opportunities for early identification and interventions before a crisis occurs.

Meanwhile, we are focusing on how to practically support clinicians to use local mental health information to identify young people who may need support. The team has been working with local mental health professionals and GPs to identify opportunities to use insights from information systems in clinical practice, to support early and appropriate mental health care provision.

Page updated

Report abuse