Pilot with Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust CAMHS Crisis and Enhanced Treatment Team (CCETT)
In 2023, urgent referrals of young people (YP) to mental health crisis teams in England and the number of YP awaiting support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) both reached an all-time high (NHS Digital, 2024).
To explore the potential for digital mental health services to extend the capacity of crisis services and provide alternative routes to support for more YP, Kooth, Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (LPFT), CAMHS Crisis and Enhanced Treatment Team (CCETT) and Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) worked collaboratively to develop a care pathway, ‘Help to Cope’. This pathway aimed to take pressure off CAMHS and CCETT by decreasing their waiting list and providing a digital alternative to more immediate access.
Development and mobilisation of Help to Cope was undertaken rapidly, with a highly collaborative approach to service design which enabled the pathway to launch in under 16 weeks. This was underpinned by existing trusted relationships between local NHS and Kooth teams, with Kooth’s existing digital mental health service embedded in the local system for a number of years.
Key Highlights:
● 100% of YP who completed their intervention indicated that they felt heard, understood and respected in their chat. YP who engaged were satisfied with support provided and positive outcomes can be demonstrated.
● 82% of referrals received into the pilot were eligible. Of those who were eligible for the pathway, 77% engaged with the digital support offered.
● YP who engaged with the pathway had presenting issues relating to anxiety, stress, suicidal ideation, self harm, family relationships, school and college and depression/low mood.
● 100% of YP indicated that they felt the practitioner helping them was a good fit for them and 83% indicated that the session felt right for them at the time.
● 3 in 4 YP indicated that they would recommend Kooth to a friend.
● Differentiating features of the Help to Cope pathway were popular, for example the out-of-hours support (beyond the traditional 9am-5pm) was highly utilised, with 82% of chats attended being out-of-hours.
● An average of 7 therapeutic messages (asynchronous and outside of live chat) were sent to YP who used messaging for support. YP were highly engaged in the ‘keeping well’ elements of the pathway which provide a popular and flexible option to receive therapeutic support from a professional.
● Goals were set around YP’s wants; improving emotional wellbeing, personal development and resilience or receiving support around their relationships. 53% of goals that were engaged with achieved meaningful change for those YP.
● 37% of referred YP were young carers. This is thought to be correlated to the flexible nature of the support offered through the Help to Cope pathway.
● The Kooth practitioners who supported this pilot reported that they felt comfortable, supported and boundaried within their role.
