Background
Kooth has been trailblazing anonymous and free-to-access online mental health support since 2001, supporting hundreds of thousands of children, young people, students and adults across the UK. Our approach is humanistic and integrative, supporting each individual to find their way to positive change.
To quantify the benefits of Kooth to children and young people in economic terms, we worked with York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) to develop a cost calculator.
Note: The research paper describing this project is being peer-reviewed and is under final review
Measuring Kooth’s economic impact
The team at YHEC built the calculator to estimate the cost to the UK government - and to NHS commissioners - as a result of implementing the Kooth platform. A decision tree structure was used to track the progress of 2,160 children and young people (CYP) with emerging mental health needs (EMHN), comparing those with access to the Kooth platform and those without access to a mental health platform.
The London School of Economics (LSE) provided data around the outcomes of this cohort; immediate health outcomes were measured, such as suicidal ideation and self harm, which were linked by YHEC to a set of intermediate outcomes and their associated one year cost savings to the UK government.
These included hospitalisations due to self harm, crime, smoking and binge drinking.
Various scenario analyses were conducted, including a potential reduction in GP appointments and a reduction in the number of antidepressant medication prescriptions as a result of using Kooth.
Results
The results take into account the cost of Kooth in relation to the averted costs the service leads to, such as:
- Preventing children and young people from being hospitalised due to suicidal ideation or self harm or preventing arrests for committing crime
- Reducing initial and follow up GP appointments
- Reducing the number of antidepressant prescriptions
Table showing detailed view of cost savings associated with commissioning Kooth:
|
Overview |
Total |
Per engaged EMHN CYP |
|
Cost of Kooth |
£140,000 |
£92.10 |
|
Cost saving |
£443,234 |
£291.58 |
|
Cost difference |
-£303,234 |
-£199.48 |
|
Intermediate outcome |
Reduction in incidence |
Cost saving |
|
Hospitalisations averted due to suicidal ideation |
6 |
£5,262 |
|
Hospitalisations averted due to self-harm |
13 |
£11,401 |
|
Crimes averted |
3 |
£3,078 |
|
Smokers averted |
39 |
£10,256 |
|
Binge drinkers averted |
28 |
£19,618 |
|
GP appointments averted |
5,141 |
£169,653 |
|
Antidepressant prescriptions averted |
298 |
£223,966 |
As the table shows, the study determined that every £1 spent on Kooth yields a £3.16 saving elsewhere to the UK NHS and Government.
According to the report: “The uptake of mental health platforms, such as Kooth, could result in cost savings to the UK public sectors and should be given consideration as a beneficial addition to existing mental health services.”
Other cost savings that YHEC and other experts stated were highly important, but not able to be modelled were the cost-savings associated with improvements in educational attendance and attainment, as well as reduced use of CAMHS.
To read the research paper, follow this link.
To get in touch with us directly, email contact@kooth.com
