Description

In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Dr. Clara Faria sits down with Dr. Alice Wickersham, Zoe Frith, and Professor Johnny Downs from the CAMHS Digital Lab at King's College London to explore how digital innovation is transforming child and adolescent mental health services. The conversation delves into their groundbreaking work bridging the gap between research and real-world practice, addressing the critical challenge of implementing digital mental health technologies in clinical settings.​ The team discusses their multi-faceted approach to digital mental health innovation, including developing user-centered digital therapies and assessment tools, creating apps like My Journey and My Health that engage young people at the point of referral, and pioneering electronic health record linkage between CAMHS and education systems. They share insights on using natural language processing to extract meaningful clinical information from patient notes, reducing administrative burden through ambient voice technology for clinical assessments, and engaging schools and young people through creative partnerships like their collaboration with Elstree Screen Arts Academy.​ This episode offers a comprehensive look at how digital technologies can address waiting lists, improve research participation, and provide better outcomes for young people facing mental health challenges. Whether you're a clinician, researcher, policymaker, or anyone interested in the future of child mental health services, you'll gain valuable insights into the practical challenges and exciting possibilities of digital mental health innovation.​

Learning Objectives

1. Examine how digital technologies can significantly improve mental health services.

2. Consider implementation barriers, including clinician buy-in, and why usability and acceptability are crucial for digital mental health tools.

3. Explore why stakeholder engagement is essential for successful digital interventions and how linking mental health data with education can reveal important insights.

4. Recognise how digital tools can streamline research processes in mental health, with insight into innovative projects that are underway to reduce administrative burdens for clinicians.

5. Understand the importance of co-design in developing digital tools and how AI and NLP are being used to enhance data extraction from clinical notes.

6. Gain insight into future directions include creating clinical dashboards for better patient management.