Children and Young People’s Experience of Seeking Mental Health Support via Different Mental Health

1. Set-up, recruitment and delivery of in-depth interviews of 25-30 individuals aged 18-25 years with lived-experience of seeking and/or receiving mental health support (only those who are not in an acute mental health crisis will be asked to participate) by May 15, 2023. Participants will be recruited via third sector organisations, education institutions, and social media, but cannot be recruited directly from NHS services (PHW Research & Evaluation Division will support recruitment by contacting youth and mental health groups prior to the commencement of the project). This will involve recruiting a purposeful sample of different groups regarding gender, geographical location (rural/urban), deprivation, ethnic group (at least 5% of participants belonging to an ethnic minority), experience with a diverse range of mental health support services in Wales (including a mix of those who have sought support but have not accessed it and those who have accessed it).Qualitative interviews will provide an in-depth understanding of the challenges young people experience while seeking and/or receiving mental health support through one or more services available across Wales. This will also help us identify key barriers and any facilitators to accessing the support needed, and reasons behind negative or positive experiences; explore differences and similarities between different mental health support services, and identify a list of priority areas for the improvement of services in Wales.Each interview will last 30 minutes (max 45 min) and will explore themes to be included in the interview guide. The Research & Evaluation Division will develop the interview topic guide, informed by the academic literature, with input and feedback from the successful agency. It is likely the interview topic guide will include:(1) Participant views on mental wellbeing and health.(2) Reasons for seeking mental health support and their mental health needs.(3) What influences their decision to seek mental health support.(4) Knowledge of currently available services and how to access them.(5) Type of services approached by the participants.(6) Experiences of seeking mental health support- Expectations and how these compare to reality.- Differences between services (if support has been sought for more than one service).(7) Participant views on improvement for the services they sought support from.In accordance with the Welsh Language Act, individuals should be provided with the opportunity to participate in Welsh, if required.2. The sampling framework for the recruitment (e.g. purposive sampling), developed in consultation with Public Health Wales.3. Consultation and feedback on the interview topic guide, developed by Public Health Wales.4. Appropriately trained professional interviewing staff to conduct in-depth semi-structured interviews remotely across Wales in English and Welsh language, as preferred by participants.5. Project planning, management and quality assurance to ensure qualitative interviews are gathering in-depth information and reaching saturation, to set timescales and that the sampling framework is achieved.6. Regular updates on project progress including recruitment and the number of interviews (e.g., scheduled, completed, drop-outs). Recruitment is expected to be completed by March 2023.7. Supply of anonymised interview transcripts in Microsoft Word format (.docx), with regular interview transcripts to Public Health Wales for quality assurance. A minimum of 10 interview transcripts will be required by March 2023.8. Translation of interview transcripts if conducted in Welsh.9. A brief technical report detailing the recruitment process.These materials will belong to Public Health Wales.