BAY
BAY aims to support depressed young people in developing confidence, to connect with others, and increase activities that are important to them, which we hope will help with their recovery.
Rates of emotional disorders in young people have been increasing over recent years and the covid-19 pandemic has had a particular negative impact on the mental health of young people with an increased demand on services. At the same time, the pandemic has changed the way services are being delivered with remote working and blended therapy much more common.
Even before the pandemic, only 25% of children and young people with mental health disorders accessed help. Young people with more severe depression and high risk are referred to specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) but there are long waiting lists because of a significant shortage of skilled staff and insufficient therapy skills.
BAY stands for Behavioural Activation for Young people with depression in specialist child and adolescent mental health services. Our team has developed a behavioural activation (BA) intervention that can be delivered by clinicians without specialist therapy skills following brief training and delivered using a blended online and in person approach. The BAY study aims to examine the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and acceptability of this BA, compared to treatment as usual plus psycho education, in depressed adolescents aged 11-17 referred to specialist CAMHS. Recruitment is taking place across 5 NHS mental health trusts in England.
If BAY BA is effective and cost-effective, it could be delivered at scale and hence increase access to treatment in specialist CAMHS. By potentially freeing up more experienced staff, our intervention could also reduce waiting times for other more specialist interventions.