PROJECT 99
EXPLORING INTERNET BASED APPROACHES TO SUPPORT YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH IN GREATER GLASGOW & CLYDE. Executive Summary Project 99
“COMMITMENT 6: DURING THE
Project 99 was funded as an agreed action in the strategic programme for Child and Youth Mental Health Improvement for Greater Glasgow and Clyde. It has adopted a coproduction approach, working with young people aged 15-21 to explore the potential of the internet and social media in promoting mental health.
PERIOD OF THE MENTAL HEALTH
It aligns with Commitment 6 of the Scottish Mental Health Strategy 2012, which stresses the intention to use new technologies in the improvement of mental health nationwide. The project, commissioned by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, was taken forward by a consortium comprising of national youth information agency Young Scot, service design agency Snook and the Mental Health Foundation. It has been guided by a multi-agency steering group that in turn helped forge connections with a range of local youth groups and projects.
STRATEGY WE WILL DEVELOP A SCOTLAND-WIDE APPROACH TO IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH NEW TECHNOLOGY IN COLLABORATION WITH NHS 24.” Mental health strategy for scotland, 2012-2015
Project 99 has produced:
1. A summary of published research and practice in this field, used to inform the process
2. An interactive map illustrating the range of mental health-related technology products and services emerging in the UK and internationally
3. A report of insights and case studies on young people, mental health and online behaviour patterns. The report includes ideas developed by young people which could be taken forward for future development, plus insights to guide general , development of digital tools to support mental health
www.wegot99.com
4. A youth guide providing information on staying safe and well online in the format of interactive animated images (gifs) which can be shared by communities of young people online
The project remit was to use participatory methods to explore the potential of the internet, social media and mobile technologies in promoting better mental health and wellbeing for young people, and to work with the young people to develop some ideas for appropriate multi-media resources. The approach to the project included intial desk research to create an illustrative snapshot of the digital media-mental health territory. This comprised a review of findings from major published reports on the topic, a review of specific platforms and applications for mental health support and investigation of examples of products and services. The desk research also sought to provide some balance to the predominantly negative perceptions of social media impact on young people’s mental health, demonstrating that it can potentially have a positive role. The details of the findings from this desk research are illustrated in the map of products and services. In addition, Young Scot also conducted an online survey of young people, asking a range of questions about how they accessed information and support through digital media. One of the key findings from this was that the majority of young people now mostly use smart phones for accessing the internet, which might give directions to how we develop mental health applications and support platforms. A series of case study interviews was conducted to gain some insight into young people’s use of digital media and also their experiences of mental health and wellbeing issues. The focus was then on engaging young people in a series of participatory activities, exploring the digital media landscape, and where they saw themselves as active participants in use of social and digital media. Specific Project Insights The project gained real insight into the patterns of use of social and digital media by young people, the new and adaptive behaviours they develop as well as the construction of new social etiquettes. Importantly, the experiences and insights from young people in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, have close affinity to the published evidence in the field.
The report includes details of where and from whom the young people we engaged with receive information and support about mental health. Much of the focus from young people themselves was on promoting emotional literacy, and supporting those who support others with mental health problems. When considering digital media with specific relation to mental health, the report outlines young people’s views on how social media impacts on mental health – including both positive and negative impacts - and how they currently seek or receive support through digital media. The co-design sessions supported the young people in generating ideas for how digital and social media could support maintenance of good mental health. The young people emphasised the importance of humour in breaking down barriers and developed ideas for some engaging platforms to support others in maintaining mental wellbeing. A young people’s guide to mental health has also been developed with a range of animated images (gifs) and memes designed to present encouraging messages about maintaining mental health. Finally the young people have written a Manifesto for Youth Mental Health with some key points about how they want to be involved in developing policy and practice in this area.
The recommendations from the report are outlined in Chapter 7 and are framed in three areas: 1. Recommendations for development of digital assets for youth mental health 2. Wider recommendations about support systems for youth mental health 3. Recommendations for use of existing social media sites by the NHS The report and other Project 99 assets can be found online at www.wegot99.com and are available for download.
The most popular social media sites still seem to be Facebook and YouTube, but some young people interact with others mostly through gaming consoles and multiplayer games and live chat applications. The young people did not distinguish between online and offline life or relationship and there is certainly a blurring of social boundaries in the digital world.
www.wegot99.com
OUR APPROACH TO SHARING THE PROJECT 99 REPORT MATERIALS: Open Access, Some Rights Reserved
The outputs of the Project 99 exploration of internet-based approaches to support youth mental health have emerged through a coproduction approach, involving Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS (GGCNHS) as commissioning body, a three agency consortium (consisting of Mental Health Foundation, Snook and Young Scot) and young people, all supported by a multi-agency steering group. In turn, this project is an agreed action within the Board’s Strategic Framework for Child and Youth Mental Health Improvement, ratified by the Child and Maternal Health Strategy Group in June 2012.
You are welcome to ask for permission to use this work for purposes other than those covered by the creative commons license. GGCNHS gratefully acknowledges the work of Creative Commons in inspiring our approach to copyright for this report. To find out more go to www.creativecommons.org Potential for Future Development and Collaboration GGCNHS and its local community planning partners will now be actively considering all the material and recommendations contained in this work with a view to formulating a response and a forward development programme, as part of the wider body of work to improve child and youth mental health in Greater Glasgow and Clyde. In recognising the emerging nature of this agenda, the Health Board would welcome dialogue with partners and potential partners who may be interested in collaborating in aspects of this work, and in discussion with agencies who may already be engaged in similar work, with a view to sharing good practice. For further discussions please contact us via the wegot99.com contact form.
Note that the material presented in the Project 99 reports is the result of combined work from the commissioned partners and the participating young people and does not represent the views of GGCNHS. GGCNHS is keen to make this work available to any interested party, while retaining the copyright. We have therefore applied an open access policy to this work which allows anyone to access the report material online without charge. Anyone can download, save or distribute this work in any format, including translation, without permission. This is subject to the terms of the licence embedded in the report documentation, which is a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, its main conditions being: · GGCNHS and the three commissioned partners – Mental Health Foundation, Snook and Young Scot are credited · This summary and the address www.wegot99.com are displayed - Creation and distribution of derivative works is permissible, but only under the same or a compatible licence · The work is not resold or used for any commercial purposes · A copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to GGCNHS via the contact form on wegot99.com
www.wegot99.com