What’s the project?
There are long waiting times to be seen by CAMHS; with some people waiting for as long as two years. CAMHS is the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services which provide a range of mental health support for children and young people. To find out more about CAMHS, click here. It has also been shown that for some children and young people there is a benefit from being seen by CAMHS in one session.
For this project, Dr Nicola Evans (Cardiff University) and Dr Sarah Perry (University of Manchester) and their research team, want to do the early work needed to find out how a single session intervention can help children and young people referred to CAMHS.
In future, the team will use this information to plan a larger study to design and test the new single-session intervention. There are different ways to run single-session interventions, and the team would like to find out what makes them work well or if they are acceptable to young people, their families or carers, and the professionals who work in CAMHS.
Find out more
The research team are recruiting eight young people, aged 14 to 25 years old. Throughout the project, the YPAG will attend six online meetings on weekends, and will shape all the work packages. The research team is looking for young people to advise from a lived experience perspective on the project and the development of single session interventions, contributing their thoughts on what an acceptable single session intervention might be, and what outcomes the YPAG think will be important to measure.
This will include the young people being involved in:
- Input on an initial review of the current data on single session interventions and making sense of the review findings
- Developing a survey and engagement sessions for other stakeholders
- Developing a single session intervention and larger future study
- Sharing the findings
- Must be aged 14 to 25 years old
- Have lived experience of mental health issues, and have had prior access to CAMHS services at some point in the past
- Must be based in the UK
- Have access to stable internet connection
Mental health issues affect everyone, but membership on involvement groups do not always reflect this. We actively encourage individuals identifying as young men, LGBTQ+ youth, neurodiverse and ethnic minority groups to apply.
You will be provided with a payment of £25 per hour for taking part in the full meetings, as well as a £5 digital data allowance for each meeting.
You will also be provided with a payment of £25 per hour for any additional work done in between meetings, for example reviewing materials, involvement in the write-up.
Data protection
Your name and personal details will be kept private. Any input you provide will be shared anonymously or using a pseudonym in the final report. Your personal information will be stored securely and only accessed by the research team.
If you’re interested in this opportunity, please follow this link to submit a form with brief answers to the following questions:
- What is your name?
- What is your date of birth?
- If you are under 18, please confirm if you have permission from your parent or caregiver to take part.
- What is your email address?
- Why are you interested in this specific opportunity?
- Please give details of any relevant experience with CAMHS
- Are there any other skills or experience that you want to share with us?
- Sometimes after talking about topics like mental health, people feel they need a little extra support or someone to chat to. What support do you currently have in place (e.g. supportive friends, family, health professionals or mental health charities)? Is there anything The McPin Foundation could do to support you or make your involvement experience better?
- How did you hear about this opportunity?
IMPORTANT:
As part of the recruitment process to this group, you may be asked to have a call with a member of McPin staff. Nothing scary! This is so you can meet us, ask us any questions, and for us to ask you about any accessibility needs, or any support you need from us and check in on your interest in this opportunity.
In this call we will also ask for a form of age verification, a document with your photo, name and date of birth. This could be a passport, Student ID card, voter ID, access card, drivers’ licence, proof of age card etc.
We will need to check that you are happy to respect and work within McPin’s ground rules and practices before a place on the study can be offered. If you have any worries about the call or about not having an appropriate document, please reach out and one of our team can support.
You are welcome to send your responses in audio or video format if preferred! If you need any help completing your expression of interest, you can get in touch with George ([email protected]).
Monday 30th June, 2025, 12pm.
Please note that the McPin Foundation regularly promotes opportunities on behalf of other institutions; we are not responsible for the continuation or contents of further correspondence with any project partners where we are not listed as the project main point of contact.
