Access to services related to adolescent mental health
Dates
January 2024 - June 2026
Research Team
Dr Dan Lewer, Dr Ruth Blackburn, Professor Jess Deighton, Dr Johnny Downs, Professor John Wright
Background
Up to one in five teenagers experience mental health problems, and some young people are at greater risk than others. Those from poorer families and certain ethnic groups are more affected. Furthermore, some research suggests that access to mental health services can be worse for young people from a minority ethnic background, but more research is needed to understand if this true, the role of poverty, and the possible reasons.
Aims and objectives
Our aim is to understand whether mental health services are more accessible for some teenagers than others. The objectives of the research are to:
(1) describe how many teenagers from different parts of the population are using mental health services
(2) test whether usage of mental health services appears fair across the population
(3) make local and national recommendations to promote earlier intervention, particularly for groups of young people who are currently more likely to access care in a crisis.
Methods
We will use local (Bradford) and national (ECHILD) data to assess inequalities in access to services for teenagers with mental health needs. The research will follow three stages:
(1) We will estimate how many teenagers use mental health-related services, and how this differs according to ethnicity and family wealth/background. We are particularly interested in whether young people seek help at an early stage, for example from a GP, or if they seek help in a crisis, for example in the Emergency Department.
(2) Within Bradford, we will compare mental health support to surveys of mental health among teenagers to test whether provision and access to mental health is fair. For example, if we find that certain groups of teenagers are likely to experience mental health problems but are unlikely to receive treatment or support from the NHS, that might be considered unfair.
(3) We will combine our findings to identify which groups of young people mostly urgently need earlier access to mental health services, and make recommendations for how local and national services can identify and better support these groups.
Policy relevance & dissemination
This project aims to guide strategies for improving access and targeting of mental health-related services by identifying which groups of young people with mental health needs access services in crisis, or do not access services at all. In addition, the project aims to identify which factors enable earlier access to mental health-related services. The project will also develop approaches for using local and regional data to understand differences in mental health needs and service use.