What were we trying to do?
The overall aim of the study was to roll out a safe, acceptable and clinically meaningful digital platform to appropriate stakeholders both in Greater Manchester and nationally. Our aim was to help address gaps in service provision and facilitate the development of a therapeutic delivery model using a robustly evaluated digital platform. 

 

Why was it important?
One in every nine children has a mental health problem; half of all mental health problems are established by the age of 14, with three quarters established by 24 years of age. Over the past two years 42nd Street have been developing and testing their digital therapeutic offer to vulnerable and isolated young people in Greater Manchester. Based on consultation with over 1000 young people, the charity have built a secure online platform to offer a range of therapeutic support, including individual counselling and psychosocial therapeutic interventions, group work, guided self-help, resources and information and moderated forums. These developments enabled 42nd Street to continue delivering therapeutic support to young people throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research indicates that online therapeutic services reach greater numbers of people from particular communities and vulnerable groups than traditional face to face therapeutic services. Online therapeutic support can preserve a sense of anonymity for the young person, so they feel able to communicate with greater openness and at an earlier stage (often referred to as ‘online disinhibition’). Online delivery methods can reach young people whose specific needs or circumstances create significant barriers to support, e.g. barriers around physical access to services due to disability; cultural and social expectations, or fear of being recognised by a perpetrator of abuse.

In 2019, 42nd Street was awarded funding from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Health and Wellbeing Fund, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) and Salford CCG/Local Authority, to scale up a digital online offer across Greater Manchester with young people aged 13-25 years. As part of this programme of work NIHR ARC GM were commissioned to conduct an independent evaluation of 42nd Street’s current online support offer. 

 

How did we do it?

We carried out a mixed methods design, incorporating:

 

• Routine data set analysis, using a range of process and outcome measures.
• Qualitative study - using a qualitative, descriptive design, we conducted individual semi-structured interviews with young people who had used 42nd Street’s online services and staff members involved in delivering these services, exploring individual opinions and perspectives.

 

Who we worked with:

• 42nd Street

 

 

Findings

• There were no significant differences in the ethnicity of the people between those who used the online platform and those who participated in face-to-face services.
• Over 95% of young people who used the online platform did so by self-referral, but it was not possible to identify how young person decided to self-refer into 42nd Street's services.
• The online platform appeared to exhibit a wider reach than face-to-face services in terms of diversity, physical and geographical boundaries and took into consideration a range of circumstances for young people.
• A small sample of young people reported degrees of improvement in their mental wellbeing after using the online support.

 

 

 

Downloadable Resources

 

• Evaluation report

   

  • Executive Summary - An evaluation of 42nd Street’s online services

   

  • Final Report - An evaluation of 42nd Street’s online services
• News stories
  • New report evaluates the impact of an online mental health and wellbeing service for young people (published June 2023)
• Infographic
  • An evaluation into 42nd Street's online service

 

More information

 

 

 

Programme Manager
Gill Rizzello
gill.rizzello@manchester.ac.uk