What were the project aims?
- Build the knowledge, confidence and skills of professionals across the mental health system around participation.
- Increase the participation of young people and their families in the children and young people’s mental health system at individual, organisational, local and national levels by helping more settings embed participation in what they do.
What motivated this project?
The project was developed as a result of NHS England’s focus on improving the involvement of young people and parents and carers in the design of mental healthcare.
Amplified aimed to boost the expertise of professionals working with young people in the mental health system, as well as to shine a light on the importance of involving parents and carers in the design of mental healthcare support.
What obstacles did we overcome?
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Covid-19
During the final year of the project, COVID-19 affected our ability to deliver the face to face elements of the project, such as training for professionals and workshops with young people. We transitioned to a remote delivery model, using digital tools such as Zoom and Mural to facilitate sessions.
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Communication
Given the scale of the project, it was important to keep NHS England informed of progress and evaluation and to manage expectations of what was possible in the timeframe. To enable this we established a regular reporting/meeting schedule with NHS England and allocated a number of support days to each workstream.
Project outcomes
YoungMinds continues to work closely with NHS organisations to help build and establish high-quality participation structures.
Below are some figures that demonstrate the reach and effectiveness of the Amplified project.
Participation is a mutually beneficial process, giving professionals valuable insights into what individuals need from a service and empowering those individuals to have a say in their own care and influence improvements in care for other service users in the future.
Project reach
We produced and delivered...
- 16 audits
- for Clinical Network and Trailblazer sites
- 75 workshops
- for over 100 professionals.
- 95%
- thought our workshops were excellent
- 15
- participation publications
We supported...
- 12
- Systems Improvement Teams
- 27
- Trailblazer projects
- 12
- Clinical Networks
- 6
- Learning Collaboratives.
Top tips learnt from the project
- Allowing time to understand the need and complexity of participation and ensuring that all across the UK there is a youth voice.
- Working with different groups and in different ways is key in getting the best out of those engaged in the project.
“Don’t think you’re the one with the power just because you’re leading the session. It’s the other way round; the young people are in charge, not you. They’re the ones doing the work!”