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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TEAM (Technology Enabled Adolescent Mental Health)

Teaser

Summary

The World Health Organisation conceptualises health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. Central to this statement is the principle that there is no health without mental health. Mental disorders are health conditions defined by the experiencing of distressing psychological symptoms, to the extent that normal functioning is impaired and some form of help is often needed for recovery. The Global Burden of Disease Study has found that mental health difficulties are a leading cause of disability worldwide, accounting for 13% of all lost years of healthy life globally, rising to 23% in high income countries. A closer examination reveals that young people aged 10â€“24 represent 27% of the worldâ€™s population within which mental health disorders are the leading cause of disability, with 50% of mental disorders have emerged by 14 years of age and 75% present before 24 years of age. Unfortunately, international studies also conclude that most young people experiencing mental health difficulties do not receive appropriate specialist treatment. Reflecting this challenge new strategies for the prevention and treatment of mental health problems of young people has become a central objective in international healthcare policy.

TEAM brings together an interdisciplinary network of mental health experts, computer scientists, designers and policy experts. The overall objective is to train a new generation of researchers who can help to deliver more effective, more affordable and more accessible mental health services for young people. The focus is on the design, development and evaluation of new technology-enabled mental health services.

Our research program is built around four key research objectives:

RO1: Development of automated, technology-enabled assessment tools for improved early diagnosis and intelligent on-going assessment of mental-health difficulties in young people.

RO2: Design of technology-enabled programs that help to prevent mental health difficulties by empowering young people and helping to build resilience and care for their own mental health, thus reducing the incidence of mental health difficulties.

RO3: Development of technology-enabled tools that support improved access to effective, engaging and evidence-based treatments that are adaptable and involve a wider range of care providers.

RO4: Investigation of key policy areas in relation to the delivery of technology-enabled mental health, including shared decision-making, open data and legal and ethical frameworks.

These research objectives are implemented across four work packages and 15 individual research projects, which provide the overall context for a unique doctoral training and research platform for 15 Early Stage Researchers.

Ultimately TEAM aims to deliver innovative new technologies, and supporting policies, that support rapid, large-scale and early assessment, prevention and treatment of mental health difficulties in young people.

Work performed

TEAM ITN has made excellent progress towards achieving our project objectives. As a result of initial research investigations, minor changes have been made to the original research plans for several individual research tasks. There have also been minor changes in the beneficiaries of the network, as a result of an internal restructuring within Telefonica and the winding down of Reach Out Ireland. One Early Stage Research (ESR14) resigned after three months of employment with TEAM and a new researcher started in October 2018. Finally, we have altered the timings and locations of several ESR secondments. These changes have not materially changed the overall scope or direction of TEAM in any significant way.

Training activities have closely followed the initial proposal, including a network-wide orientation conference and summer school, which played an important role in establishing the interdisciplinary focus of the network. We have also met, and even exceeded, our initial impact/dissemination expectations. Co-located, group secondments have proven particularly helpful in supporting peer collaboration. For example, the Digital Child Mental Health conference which took place at the Anna Freud Centre resulted in 23rd May 2018, was a direct result of the co-located secondments of five ESRs, working in collaboration with 2 locally hosted ESRs. The event attracted 65 attendees with backgrounds across a wide range of academic and non-academic fields and provide an opportunity to build networks and share the latest research about technologies to support mental health in young people.

Building on this ESRs are now organising a symposium on â€œTechnology for Youth Mental Health: Opportunities and Ethical Implications Involving Usersâ€™â€™ at the 18th International Congress of the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry being held in Vienna, Austria in June 2019. Eleven TEAM ESRs will present at the symposium which will be attended by researchers, clinicians and public advocacy groups that promote mental health of children and adolescents in Europe. This congress will facilitate the extension of connections between European countries on mental health issues. TEAM is also participating in the Common Dissemination Booster with other Connected Health ITNs.

Final results

The TEAM programme has been working toward the expected results and has successfully contributed to impact in a number of areas. ESRs are at the early stage of their PhDs, however several workshop and position papers have now been published, alongside protocols for systematic literature reviews. Surveys have been conducted involving over 1,300 respondents. Structured and semi-structured interviews have taken place with over 160 patients, caregivers and experts. In addition, numerous workshops, co-design sessions and focus groups have been delivered to elicit feedback from potential end users or associated groups. Many ESRs now have their first major submission under review with journals and leading international conferences. As individual project progress further and results are produced peer-review articles will be published, prototypes will be made available for field trials and evaluation reports will be published.

The enhancement of ESRs employability and career prospects has been achieved through local training, network wide training, collaborative initiatives and collective interdisciplinary secondment activities. Where possible TEAM encouraged group secondment timings so that peer collaboration and inter-disciplinary research could take place.

ESRs are contributing and participating on national and European working groups to disseminate research and inform policymakers. Three ESRs have recently joined a Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) working group on researcher mental health. They are keen to push the theme of mental health in future MCAA, EU, & EURODOC policies. One ESR is involved in a digital taskforce which is a national platform run by the Health Services Executive (HSE) in Ireland. The taskforce is hoping to deliver of a four-tiered online Mental Health platform which will be rolled out nationally.

Policy guidelines will be exploited through dissemination to the range of European networks such as the COST Action on Problematic Usage of the Internet, and TREATME and those held by the beneficiaries, such as Schools in Mind and the Child Outcomes Research Consortium.