Our Work
We have been working to improve digital tools for mental health through a number of projects. Scroll down to find out about our latest work, or click on the buttons below to go to the section you are looking for.
Enhancing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Referrals (EN-CAMHS)2
Referrals (EN-CAMHS) 2​
This in an NIHR-funded project which started in June 2024. EN-CAMHS 2 aims to co-develop a digital referral tool for NHS CAMHS to improve the quality of CAMHS referrals.
Why Was It Needed?
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EN-CAMHS 1 found referrals for children and young people were not accepted by CAMHS which was distressing for families. People who made referrals to CAMHS, like doctors and teachers, were frustrated because the process was unclear, and they didn’t always know what other local support services were available. Families and professionals told us a digital tool could help make the referral process easier and clearer for everyone.
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Project progress so far​
We worked with over 35 stakeholders across 8 focus groups to develop the content of the digital referral tool. Our project advisory groups have met consistently since the start of the project to advise on research activities. Specifically for this project, we set up the Pan-Disability Digital Accessibility Group (PDDAG), who worked with us to ensure the tool is as accessible as possible for individuals with disabilities and/or specific diagnoses.
We are working with experts in inclusivity from academia and charities to make sure the tools are as inclusive as possible. We are working with CAMHS teams across England to pilot the digital referral tool for up to 9 months.The project has been granted favourable ethical opinion from the Health Research Authority (HRA).
We have worked with the Digital Health Software Team and Quality Manager at the University of Manchester to complete assessments and governance for the tool to make sure it is compliant with national standards.
Opportunities to get involved
There are currently no opportunities to be involved in EN-CAMHS 2. Keep an eye out for details on dissemination events where we will be sharing the findings of the pilot implementation.
The artwork on the right was created by Rowan, a scribe who attended the Manchester Dissemination Event. Rowan visually captured the discussions which occurred throughout the day!
Culturally Adapted CMHDS
The Culturally Adapted Core Mental Health Dataset (CMHDS) was developed through a National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR)-funded project between 2020 and 2023 to capture mental health data in physical health trials.
 
The link between physical and mental health is well known, however there is limited data to evidence this as physical and mental health data are not routinely collected together.
A series of focus groups involving members of the public, experts in mental health data collection and ethics committee members were involved in establishing the CMHDS. This was then successfully implemented in two physical health trials.
In early 2023, we were awarded Greater Manchester Clinical Research Network (CRN) funding to culturally adapt the CMHDS. We engaged 23 participants from minoritised ethnic backgrounds through public focus groups to explore perceptions of the CMHDS and its inclusion of race and ethnicity data.   
Additionally, we consulted six experts in cultural sensitivity and mental health research to gather insights into best practices. Conclusions from this piece of work identified that formatting, wording and language and social and cultural factors were important aspects to adapt to be more culturally sensitive.   
The CMHDS is being carried forward in DATAMIND and will store participant data on mental health in the DATAMIND Trusted Research Environment for approved researchers to access.   
The DATAMIND SRAG Research Advisory Group were also also involved in finalising the Culturally Adapted CMHDS.