Improving interventions for children and young people's mental health conference 2026

UCL Student Storyteller Nurulhuda Gumay Riswandi shares key insights from this year’s Mental Health & Wellbeing conference: Improving interventions for children and young people's mental health

On 13 May 2026, UCL Grand Challenges hosted Improving Interventions for Children and Young People’s Mental Health, a one-day conference at the Kennedy Lecture Theatre. Taking place during Mental Health Awareness Week and co-badged with UCL200, the event brought together researchers, NHS partners, policy voices and students to explore how mental health outcomes for children and young people can be improved.

As someone attending the conference as a student, I was struck by how ambitious and wide-ranging the day felt. Rather than presenting young people’s mental health as a problem with one simple solution, the event showed the need for more connected thinking across research, healthcare, policy, education, communities and young people’s own experiences.

Moving beyond one-size-fits-all solutions
One of the clearest themes running throughout the conference was the need to move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions. Across the different sessions, speakers repeatedly returned to the question of what works, for whom, and under what conditions. In discussions of children and young people’s mental health, this felt especially important because experiences are shaped by age, family, school, community, inequality and access to support.
Rather than treating interventions as though they can be universally effective, the conference encouraged a more careful and context-sensitive approach. A digital tool, psychological intervention, physical activity programme, family-focused approach or community-based project might all have value, but their success depends on whether they are acceptable, accessible and meaningful to the people expected to use them.
From my perspective, this was one of the most important messages of the day. While evidence clearly matters, it is not enough for an intervention to appear effective in theory if it cannot translate into support that fits young people’s real lives.

Prevention and early intervention
The UCL Healthy Minds Hub was introduced as a new initiative focused on building partnerships and increasing investment in prevention and early intervention. Throughout the conference, this theme shaped many of the discussions. Instead of focusing only on what happens once a young person reaches crisis point, speakers explored how mental health difficulties might be prevented, identified earlier or supported more effectively before they become more severe.

At a time when young people’s mental health is often discussed through the lens of overstretched services and rising demand, this focus on prevention felt particularly necessary. The conference made the case for acting earlier, not only through clinical services, but also through schools, universities, families, communities and policy.
Importantly, early intervention was not presented as a single programme or quick fix. It was framed as a wider way of thinking about how systems can become more responsive, joined up and able to support young people before difficulties escalate.

Research that works in the real world
Questions about implementation gave the conference a strong sense of realism. Alongside discussions of innovation, speakers emphasised that research cannot sit separately from the systems expected to deliver change. Evidence only matters if it can be translated into interventions that are accessible, acceptable and capable of making a real difference, whether through NHS partnerships, policy conversations, community co-production or student mental health support.

The panel on NHS partnerships brought this issue into sharper focus by showing how complex it can be to introduce new interventions into real-world health systems. Even when mental health research produces promising ideas, services may be fragmented, resources may be limited and staff may already be under pressure. For researchers, this means thinking not only about whether an intervention works in theory, but whether it can be delivered in practice.

Routine data was one example that captured both the opportunities and challenges of working within existing systems. If collected and used carefully, it could help researchers and services understand patterns of need, treatment outcomes and gaps in provision. At the same time, questions around what data is collected, how it is collected, anonymity, security and data quality showed that better evidence depends on better systems.
Inequality as a central issue

The afternoon session on inequalities was particularly powerful because it showed that children and young people’s mental health cannot be separated from the wider conditions of their lives. Family, school, housing, discrimination, safety, poverty and community all shape both mental health risks and access to support.
This challenged any narrow view of mental health as only an individual or clinical issue. Although psychological and biological research are important, they need to be understood alongside social context. Discussions around community mental health, developmental research, neuroscience and safe adolescent relationships all pointed to the same conclusion: interventions must be designed with inequality in mind from the beginning.
What made this section especially important was its reminder that mental health support can sometimes assume that everyone has the same resources, trust in institutions or ability to access help. In reality, young people experience very different barriers. If research ignores this, it risks creating interventions that work only for those who are already easiest to reach.

Co-production, trust and community
Closely linked to the discussion of inequality was the importance of co-production. Several sessions suggested that young people and communities should not only be the subjects of research, but active contributors to it. Designing support with people, rather than simply for them, can make interventions more relevant and more trusted.
Throughout the day, trust seemed to emerge as a recurring concern. Communities that have experienced exclusion, discrimination or institutional harm may not immediately trust new programmes or services, even when they are well intentioned. Building effective mental health support therefore requires time, listening and shared ownership.
This is where interdisciplinary work becomes especially valuable. By bringing together expertise from neuroscience, psychology, policy, community research and healthcare practice, the conference reflected the fact that young people’s mental health is not shaped by one factor alone.

Student mental health and UCL’s own responsibilities
Towards the end of the day, the final panel on student mental health brought many of the conference’s wider themes closer to home. The discussion asked how the principles behind the Healthy Minds Hub could inform UCL’s own policies and practice around student mental health.
As a student, I found this particularly relevant because universities should not only respond when students are already in crisis. They should also think about prevention, belonging, workload, inclusion and how easy it is to navigate support. Student mental health is shaped not only by individual circumstances, but also by the academic and social environments students are part of.

The panel raised an important question about what it would mean for UCL not only to research early intervention, but to embed those principles in the way it supports its own students.

Building from here
Looking back across the day, the strongest message I took away was that improving children and young people’s mental health requires connection. It requires researchers working across disciplines, NHS services being involved in innovation, policy-makers engaging with evidence, and young people helping to shape the support they receive.
The conference was hopeful, but not simplistic. It recognised the urgency of rising mental health needs while showing the depth of work already underway at UCL. Most importantly, it showed that prevention and early intervention are not just clinical goals. They are collective responsibilities, requiring systems that are more joined up, inclusive and responsive to young people’s real lives.

Illustrations from the live scribing on the day

Photos from the conference on 13th May 2026