Abstract
Background: The number of young people across the globe needing urgent mental health support has reached crisis point. In the UK, 18% of children aged 7 to 16 have a probable mental disorder, with the figure rising to 22% for 17- to 24-year-olds.
Approach: In response, a group of NHS, charity, community and academic organisations have come together to create Best For You, a transformative patient-centred model of care in child and adolescent mental health and a first of its kind integrated care approach to this challenge.
Best For You launched in the UK in November 2021 with digital, volunteering and community offers. Our digital offer brings together codesigned information and support that young people can access whenever they need it. In October 2023, we opened Arc, a bespoke clinical space home to a new day programme offering an innovative, family-centred model of care for some of the most unwell patients we serve. In autumn 2024, we opened a new inpatient Young People’s Centre that enables health and community teams to co-manage patients in crisis. To support as many young people as possible, we have developed a network of community partners ranging from Premier League football clubs to local gardening charities and YouTube. These partners are integrated into the programme to provide support through projects such as mentoring for young people while they are on waiting lists.
Patient and public involvement has been key to developing and delivering Best For You. This is best demonstrated with our population level approach. Our geography serves a population of 2.4m people (600,000 aged under 25) speaking 82 languages and living across some of the most affluent and some of the most deprived areas of the UK. In order to meet their varied needs, we have formed deliberate, considered partnerships, which have enabled over 3,200 young people to date to contribute to Best For You.
Impact: To date, our digital offers have been visited over 157,000 times. Our volunteer-led 24/7 support service has been used by 374 people over 1,000 times, with 76% finding the service useful. Arc has successfully treated 45 patients who would have otherwise been seen in inpatient high acuity settings. Our community interventions also have clear outcomes, for example, our mentoring and social prescribing project partnerships with football clubs have led to improvements in WHO 5 Wellbeing Index, Perceived Stress Scale, and Goal Based Outcomes.
Implications: We firmly believe that integrated care challenges are best delivered through the right partnerships, as demonstrated with Best For You. The nature of our service area means it is able to bring people together around a common cause, which we support in three main ways. Firstly, our partnerships are based on shared vision, values and governance. Secondly, we dedicate adequate resources to drive integration. Thirdly, clear and comprehensive input from our communities drive interventions that will be maximised.
We are now planning phase 2 of the programme, which will focus on adoption and expansion beyond our pilot area, starting with a partnership in Denmark.