Mental Health and You

This week we hear from research about a very important and exciting new project from NSFT Research which aims to develop an intervention to build resilience in young people who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences called ASPIRE. Lead researcher on the ASPIRE Project, Brioney Gee and Research Assistant Psychologist on ASPIRE Isabela Tavares Junqueira, explain a few months into the project what is involved, the huge role co-production has and how the project is going. ASPIRE is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

This study is about co-producing, together with people who have relevant personal experience, a new support package for families. The new support package will aim to empower a child’s caregiver – be it their Mum, Dad or someone else who is looking after them – to use evidence-based techniques to build their child’s resilience, rather than a professional working with the young person directly.

We hear from two members of the stakeholder team who have relevant lived experience, Rachel a parent of three and Seb who is a young person giving input on various parts of the project.

The intervention will be designed to support children who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) which are traumatic or stressful events that occur before the age of 18. These include experiences such as abuse, neglect, family break-up, being bullied, or experiencing a serious illness.

These ACEs have been linked to increased risk of a wide range of negative health outcomes across a person’s life. We now know there is a strong link between the number of ACEs a person is exposed to and their odds of experiencing mental health problems.

However, not all children who experience ACEs develop mental health difficulties. Some young people have social support and personal strengths that allow them to remain healthy despite difficult experiences, something known as ‘resilience’. The amount of resilience someone has is not fixed, so if we can increase a young person’s resilience, we can decrease the risk of poor mental health.

Transcript of Seb’s contribution to the podcast:

14.50 I am a fan of co-production and I think it is a great idea to do co-production. What is the point of doing it with the old system if we can’t put co-production in to because it is too big and it’s too and it’s too far down the plan.

17.00 Young people need to know what is going on, young people need to understand what you are talking about and young people need to feel that we are, they have been seen and heard and feel that something is changing, something that they heard or seen or said that something will change.

The co-lead for this project is Prof. Cathy Creswell who is based at the University of Oxford, and other partners on the project include Dr Clio Berry who is based at Brighton and Sussex medical School, Dr Tim Lomas based in the USA, Dr Jon Wilson and Dr Tim Clarke from NSFT, and Tina Walker who is a parent/carer with experience based expertise.

If you want to get involved with ASPIRE then please email Aspire@nsft.nhs.uk

Music

Titles: Light Thought var 1 Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Title: Soft Glitch Logo License: Business License, Commercial, ASCAP 

Publisher: OV Soundtracks Composer: Oscar A. Veliz PRO: ASCAP

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation's largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR:

• Funds, supports and delivers high quality research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care
• Engages and involves patients, carers and the public in order to improve the reach, quality and impact of research
• Attracts, trains and supports the best researchers to tackle the complex health and care challenges of the future
• Invests in world-class infrastructure and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services
• Partners with other public funders, charities and industry to maximise the value of research to patients and the economy.

The NIHR was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In addition to its national role, it supports applied health research for the direct and primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using UK aid from the UK government.

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