Dorset Children and Young People’s Mental Health Campaign
Encouraging Children and Young People across Dorset to support their mental health and wellbeing through digital health apps.
Situation
As per the Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2023 report, from NHS England, it was found that 1 in 5 children and young people aged 8 to 25 residing in England likely had a mental health disorder in 2023. Despite a previous increase in rates from 2017 to 2020, the prevalence remained steady across all age groups from 2022 to 2023. The NHS is currently extending support to a record number of children and young people, having already assisted over 700,000 individuals with their mental health needs. NHS staff are exerting extraordinary efforts to meet the heightened demand for services.
Solution
In Dorset, it was acknowledged that there is a need to assist children and young people in addressing their mental health and well-being concerns when it comes to early help and prevention, especially considering the increasing demand for access and longer waiting times across services.
To address this, Public Health Dorset were involved in the selection of 10 free apps that would make up a targeted Children and Young People’s campaign with a specific landing page on the ORCHA public facing library.
The apps identified targeted particular areas around mental health and well-being including anxiety, depression, stress, sleep, self-harm and bereavement as well as apps to support friends and family members of young people who are struggling with their mental health.
A collaboration also took place with Dorset Youth Association who are part of the voluntary sector for them to reflect the same apps to ensure a consistent message at a time when young people are inundated with different messages online, including about apps and mental health.
By introducing a collection of digital health solutions helps children and young people autonomously tackle various mental health challenges or difficulties they may be facing or experiencing.
Further advantages of implementing a digital health campaign includes providing immediate access to support for those in need. Recognizing that the majority of young people are familiar with and comfortable using digital technologies, they are more inclined to engage with such initiatives.
Christian Telfer (NHS Dorset) said:
“Our population are actively searching for digital mental health and wellbeing support and clicking through to the Our Dorset App Library as a resource. Having a dedicated and trusted Youth Mental Health Apps page available is a much-needed section of that Library and reassures people that they are using apps which have met quality standards.”
Results
Since the campaign launched In August 2023 we have seen nearly 2000 individual visits to the landing page. The Dorset microsite has had 9,498 total visits in that time meaning that 19% of the sessions are from the campaign page.
There have been over 200 app downloads from the campaign, and this makes up 21% of Dorset’s downloads since the campaign was launched.
The app with the most downloads from the campaign is Move Mood with 58 downloads. Of the apps that are included in the campaign 84% of their all-time downloads on our public facing microsite have taken place since the campaign went live.
The data indicated that digital health solutions are pivotal in aiding children and young people who are struggling with their emotional health and well – being. In having a curated selection of apps available on a dedicated landing page enables them to explore and select independently, potentially influencing their emotional wellbeing positively whilst providing them immediate access to a range of different support tools.
If you would like to visit the campaign page or browse our library of health apps please visit: ourdorset.orchahealth.com/en-GB