ARC Outreach Alliance: Young People's Open Minds in Northwest London
IMPACT Study - Assessing the impact of mental health inequalities on prevalence and uptake of interventions
Do you have links with NWL schools or regularly engage with young people from the area?
Schools, wellbeing teams, community groups and youth centres can use this free resource poster to advertise this project. Contact us if you need more information or digital/printable resources.
School recruitment poster(April 2024).pdfDigital mental health resources are an excellent way to support young people with their mental wellbeing. But...
do all young people share the same views about them?
is there equal access to support for all young people, regardless of their age, gender, ethnic background, or family finances?
do neurodivergent young people benefit as much as their neurotypical peers?
Our IMPACT study aims to find out more about the relationship between various demographic factors and young people’s uptake of digital mental health resources, when they are signposted in reliable and trusted places, like their schools. This research will help to identify where inequalities may lie, and make adjustments to ensure that no one gets left behind in the journey towards improving access to mental health resources for young people in Northwest London.
How is the schools-based research conducted?
We visit participating schools to deliver an online survey, which takes 20-25 minutes to complete. We can offer introductory sessions about the study, and provide cohort survey completion support if needed. The survey asks pupils about their mental wellbeing and experiences that may impact it; like bullying, friendship, and access to digital mental health support resources. All participants will be signposted to a high quality NHS digital resource designed specifically with young people in mind.
A week after survey completion, we will invite the participants to fill in a 5-minute feedback questionnaire to let us know if they found the resource useful and highlight any barriers they experienced in accessing, understanding and completing it. We will not focus on the pupils' individual responses, our aim is to gather cohort level data and analyse any patterns or trends.
Quintile Data for NW London CAMHS usage
As part of our analysis of the whole Northwest London area, we have used anonymised data showing how many young people in different post codes are accessing mental health services.
We then matched the post codes to the schools and ranked schools, in order of which areas were using the most or least mental health services. We then split this list into five sections: quintiles 1-5.
Quintile 1 schools had the lowest mental health usage in their area, while quintile 5 schools had the highest. We then analysed the data to see the proportion of high and low use schools in each borough.
IMPACT Study_NWL CAMHs Quintiles.pngDoes your school want to participate in our research?
Our study is part of the wider Schools Research Network (SRN). The SRN works collaboratively with schools to involve them in research that improves the health of school aged children. They provide networking, practical and financial support for the delivery of studies like ours, and we are excited to join their portfolio of studies
Schools that take part in our research will receive a £300.00 research engagement contribution, towards related costs that arise from supporting and accommodating our research.
What do schools need to do to participate?
Contact us to arrange a suitable date when the IMPACT team can come in to outline the survey process to senior management, respond to staff queries and agree a date to return and administer the online survey, if needed.
Distribute the opt-out letters we provide to your pupils' parents and keep a list of the children will not be taking part.
Schedule the survey on the previously agreed date ensuring that the location is appropriate (school hall or IT lab etc.) and provide pupils with access to a school computer/laptop, if they do not have a suitable personal device.
Reconfirm the date and time with the team, if on-site survey support is needed, or distribute the survey link via email to pupils who are confident that they do not require support.
What are the benefits of partnering with IMPACT?
To show our appreciation to all schools that take part, we can:
Offer mental health information session assemblies for pupils and staff
Write a mental health related articles for school newsletters and intranet site, working in collaboration with existing wellbeing teams, if available.
Share final reports, to give deeper insight into the pupils mental health needs and how/if they are being met.
Our Team
Principal Investigator
Dasha Nicholls, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry -Imperial College London, NIHR BRC-funded researcher and ARC Northwest London Multimorbidity & Mental Health Theme Lead
Research Associate
Rinad Bakhti, Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London
Research Assistant
Sara-Nicole Gardner, Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London