Biography

Tamsin Ford is a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and a leading Child Psychiatric Epidemiologist. Her research focuses on the organization, delivery, and effectiveness of mental health services and interventions for children and young people. Prof. Ford’s work is translational and cross-disciplinary, emphasizing the promotion of mental health and prevention of mental ill-health. After earning her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, she joined Exeter University Medical School in 2007, where she established a Child Mental Health Research Group. In 2019, she moved to Cambridge. Her research spans a wide range of psychopathologies and is directly relevant to policy and practice. Notably, her papers on mental health and school exclusion were referenced in the Timpson report (2019), and she led the clinical rating for the national child mental health survey, providing essential statistics for the NHS Plan. Prof. Ford has received numerous accolades, including a CBE for her contributions to psychiatry in 2019, highlighting her significant impact on child mental health services.

Abstract

The increasing waiting lists for Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) are a major barrier for young people trying to access mental health care. The average wait until the first assessment is 9 weeks, often followed by a further 20 weeks wait for treatment, with huge variation between- and- rapid-variation within clinics. Access to digital support earlier is highly desirable and might free up CYPMHS capacity for those who need more treatment. There is no adequately tested digital tool that can achieve these aims. This presentation will describe the coproduction of a such a tool (MyMindMatters) – alpha and beta testing are complete and we are about to start recruitment to a randomised controlled trial to test the feasibility, acceptability, and potential utility of eBPI to reduce wait list suffering among young people on CYPMHS waitlists. Our objectives are to: i) understand young people’s, parents' and clinicians' waitlist experiences ii) co-produce eBPI iii) determine if eBPI warrants a fully powered RCT to robustly establish clinical and cost effectiveness.