The impact of COVID-19 on young people accessing CAMHS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people accessing CAMHS and how can these be mitigated by psychological therapies?
IRAS ID
285678
Contact name
Roshanak Nekooi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
York St John University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 27 days
Research summary
In the UK the spread of the COVID-19 disease led to a country wide lockdown on the 23rd March 2020, this lockdown included restrictions on leaving the house, seeing loved ones and access mental health support and services. In May 2020 restrictions began to loosen and by September 2020 most towns/cities in the UK were allowing its residents to meet up with family and friends. However, access to mental health support and services remained impacted and the majority of young people were asked to continue to work with services remotely.
Recent studies suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted on child and adolescent mental health, both in terms of worsening their existing mental health difficulties and in terms of their ability to access mental health support. There is little knowledge about the psycho-social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents with moderate to severe mental health difficulties accessing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). It has been suggested that psychological therapy could be beneficial in terms of improving psychological wellbeing during a pandemic, however this is poorly understood. This brings us to our proposed study, which aims to gather information on the subjective experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in children/young people accessing CAMHS and how these can be mitigated by psychological therapies. We’re further interested in how practitioner psychologists have found delivering therapeutic work during a global pandemic.
For this project, we aim to recruit 10-12 children/young people who are accessing CAMHS and 15-20 practitioner psychologists in CAMHS who are providing psychological therapy. Participants will be recruited from Sheffield community CAMHS (Centenary House and Beighton). Participants will be recruited over 12 months and will include attending an interview which will last for up to 60 minutes.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/0865
Date of REC Opinion
11 Aug 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion