Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) has successfully secured £2.1 million in funding to lead a national study into young people’s mental health. The study will look at how more health professionals can “deliver effective interventions to support young people’s mental health.”
Through fast-tracking training for new psychology graduates and qualified nurses, enabling them to join the mental health workforce quicker, researchers hope to see the workforce better equipped to meet rising demand to treat mental health conditions, and a reduction in waiting lists.
Alongside the fast-tracking, researchers are to seek feedback from young people on the benefits of online and in-person therapies.
The trial is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and led by researchers at the University of York in partnership with CPFT.
It will culminate in a multi-centre study which involves five large mental health NHS trusts: CPFT, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust. The universities of York, Nottingham and Manchester are also to take part.
National study lead and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry, Bernadka Dubicka, said: “We recognise that there is not one single cause of poor mental health. Environmental and socioeconomic factors, trauma and abuse, physical health, access to green spaces and worries about education, work and the environment all have a deep impact, among many other factors. Our intervention aims to support depressed young people in developing confidence to connect with others and increase activities that are important to them, which we hope will help with their recovery.”
