What was our focus?
Our third workshop focussed on our next priority "What are the best ways to tell young people with depression about treatment options and their effectiveness to help them feel more in control and to manage their difficulties?"
Who was there?
We are inclusive of young people, parents, researchers, clinicians, and charity partners. Having members from different and diverse backgrounds is so important when coming together to think about how best treat depression in young people and to ensure no perspectives are overlooked.
Alongside our ADvaNCE coordinators and fantastic members, we were thrilled to have guest speaker Sally O'Keefe and our core member Stella Chan present their research in this field.
After our guest speaker presentations, our lived experience researcher Georgia Herring presented young people’s perspectives about how we can empower young people throughout their treatment through our survey findings.
What did we do?
Once our attendees who had signed up to the workshop arrived at the meeting, our senior co-coordinators Dr Victoria Pile and Dr Faith Orchard introduced ADvaNCE and our key priorities which are the basis for each workshop, these priorities are Identification, Intervention and Empowerment.
We then introduced our guest speakers who presented short talks about their recent research in this field. We then held Q&A sessions where the group could ask questions about Stella and Sally's research. This was a great way to inform our understanding of the research in this area and also gave us a chance to share information and allowed people from different backgrounds and disciplines to network with people.
After our short Q&A sessions, our lived experience researcher Georgia Herring presented our survey findings from young people to help inform our understanding of young people’s perspectives. This focussed on:
1) How we inform young people of treatment options
2) How we support young people’s engagement in their treatment.
3) How we can help young people overcome barriers to support.
Our lived experienced member Alex shared his thoughts on what young people had said and shared how his parents helped empower him in his treatment through their support and encouragement.
After taking a short comfort break, we returned to our screens to be randomly allocated in to break-out rooms, including an ADvaNCE coordinator to guide the discussions. In our groups we reflected on the presentations and young people’s perspectives and came up with two solutions for how we could empower young people throughout treatment. We then reconvened with the wider group and the ADvaNCE coordinator for each break-out room group feedback their groups solutions. Once every groups solutions had been shared, we then openly discussed our solutions, building on idea’s using the knowledge and expertise from our diverse members.
Once again, it was 11am and time to say goodbye! After the workshop, our members were sent a list of the solutions we had generated and asked to rank them, along with some feedback questions. As this was our final workshop we encouraged our members to keep in contact with the network and we are excited to inform our members of our next steps as we share the solutions we have generated to young people.
Whats did we learn?
Young people’s perspectives
How helpful they thought these methods would be to inform a young person experiencing depression or low mood about the types of therapy available to them?
On average, the most helpful methods as illustrated in green, were that young people felt that the therapist explaining the types of therapy available to the young person and how each therapy could help them with their difficulties and secondly, being able to talk to other young people who have had treatment for depression.
However, it is important to note that on average no options were seen as unhelpful by young people and other options like providing online resources also received an average helpful rating.
Is there were any other methods of informing young people about treatment options that they thought could be helpful?
One interesting comment from a young person was their view that informing parents so they support their child in choosing a therapy could be helpful but they also highlighted the importance of choice in treatment for young people as they understand their experience of depression the best.
“The prior method [informing parents so they support their child in choosing a therapy] isn't terrible but never should you put the support choice in the parents hands, as they do not fully understand what their child is going through compared to their child.”
Do you think young people have a say in the treatment or therapy they receive?
69% did not believe young people would have a say compared to 31% who did.
What would help a young person who is experiencing depression / low mood feel more in control of their mental health and be able to manage their difficulties?”
“I think being able to have a say in their treatment plan and be comfortable in talking openly with someone. Also continuing a level of support afterwards to prevent relapsing”.
“Determining the root of why they're feeling low/depressed and then finding ways to tackle that issue. Also, by drawing or writing about how they feel so that they can understand it better.”
"More time to understand themselves and their own emotions. Along with family and even financial support if required.”
How helpful do you think online resources are to help young people manage their mental health?
A large proportion of young people felt online resources would neither be helpful nor unhelpful.
However, the number of young people who rated online resources as helpful and very helpful was equal to the number of young people who rated it as being neither helpful or unhelpful, which suggests that young people might view online resources as generally more helpful than unhelpful.
What could get in the way of young people finding and using online resources such as mental health apps or websites?
“It’s not as personal to the young person, they may not know which app is the best one to use.”
If they do not have access to the internet easily. If their search history/ phone is monitored by parents or guardians. If they don't think it applies to them because they haven't been diagnosed.”
“Judgement of others. Not knowing where their information is going. Not enough support as sometimes, online services are slow and that's not really helpful.”
‘I just stopped going’: A mixed methods investigation into dropout from psychological treatment in adolescents with depression - Presented by Sally O'Keefe
- Identified 3 types of 'drop outs' in RCT the IMPSCT study
- Adolescents (n=32) dropped out of the psychological treatments they received for depression and were interviewed as part of a nested qualitative study in the RCT
1) Dissatisfied drop out (n=18) - Didn't find therapy helpful - Critical of therapy
2) Got-what-they-needed drop out (n=10) - Attributed positive chnage to therapy - Didn't need to continue in therapy
3) Troubled drop out (n=4) - Stopped because of external issues
Implications
- How can we empower young people to communicate difficulties in treatment to their therapist?
- Give young people agency in deciding how many sessions they need
- Make every session useful
Project Soothe: Empowering young people through citizen science co-production - Presented by Stella Chan
Co-production project derived from compassion theory
Using photgraphs to devleop mental imagery ability or use photos as a way fof creating imagery.
Asked public to submit 'soothing' photographs
>800 images submitted snd rated for >40 countries
Findings:
Top soothing images included landscapes, flora and fauna
After viewing 25 randomly selected images positive feelings increased; negative feelings decreased; unaffected by depressive symptoms; results extended to show similar depressive anxious mood states
Limitations : temporary effects
Implications: Encouraging way to provide short term relief e.g. exam anxiety
Practical outcomes and applications of the co-production:
Young people have created books, pencil cases, sleeping pods with soothing images.
Young people presented their work at a national book festival!! Enabled young people to tell the audience what they have done and what they have learnt.
Young people producing resources for themselves and other young people.
Next steps...
'Resilience rucksack' a bag of tools co-produced by young people to help young people cope with their mental health in adolescence.
Next Steps…
After each workshop we have sent a short survey to our members, asking them to rate the solutions that were generated at the workshop, along with some feedback questions to help us improve each workshop.
We plan to bring our top-rated solutions to young people for their input and feedback.
Our hope is to publish a paper containing these final solutions to guide research directions in the field to promote real action and change.
References
O’Keeffe, S., Martin, P., Target, M., & Midgley, N. (2019). ‘I just stopped going’: A mixed methods investigation into types of therapy dropout in adolescents with depression. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 75.
Herring, G., T., Pile., V. Orchard., F. Loades. M., E. Chan., S. Reynolds, S. (2021). The Young People's 'Have your say' Survey. (Unpublished).