FAQs

Below are answers to common questions. If you have any additional questions, please do get in touch with Tamsin using the contact details provided on the contact us page.

What is CHANGES?

CHANGES is a project that focusses on studying trends over time in children and young people’s mental health and understanding population need for services and support. The project aims to help us improve child and adolescent mental health by informing efforts to improve access to the right services at the right time. There are four specific research questions the project aims to answer including:

Has there been a ‘real terms’ increase in children and young people with mental health problems and have any groups been particularly affected? What factors might be driving any increase?
Have there been changes in the ways that mental health problems affect children and young people? (e.g., in the impact on them or their families)
What is the current level of ‘unmet need’ for support and services in children and young people with mental health problems, and are there groups that are likely to be particularly under-served?
How can commissioners and service providers be better supported in planning current and future services to prevent and address child and adolescent mental health problems, and what data do they need about their populations?

What are the CHANGES research projects?

The project has three phases:

PHASE 1: Studying trends over time and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and young people’s mental health, using data from the national child mental health surveys (the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Surveys, and the Mental Health of Children and Young People in England survey series).
PHASE 2: Examining mental health-related contact with support and services, and experiences of seeking help during the pandemic, using qualitative interview data and quantitative data from the national child mental health surveys.
PHASE 3: Understanding commissioners’ experiences of commissioning services for child and adolescent mental health, using qualitative interviews. This phase will also include workshops to identify ways in which we can improve research and resources to better support commissioners. You can find out more about this phase on our Commissioner Study page.

How long will CHANGES run for?

The CHANGES project started in March 2020 and will run until the end of October 2023. After that, we will be looking to continue our work in this area with more research funding.

Are there details of ethics approval available?

Our work has been granted ethical approval by the University of Exeter Medical School (UEMS) and Health Care Professional (HCP) Research Ethics Committee (REC). If you would like any more information, please contact us.

Who is funding CHANGES?

The CHANGES project is funded by an NIHR Advanced Fellowship held by Dr Tamsin Newlove-Delgado and includes a team of researchers and collaborators (see Our Team and Collaborators).

How can I get involved?

If you are interested in finding out more about the CHANGES project, or would like to get involved in some way, please contact Tamsin (see Contact Us).

Most of our research involves examining data from pre-existing datasets however, we are also running a study which aims to develop an understanding of commissioners’ experiences of commissioning services for child and adolescent mental health. If you are a professional responsible for commissioning services for child and adolescent mental health and would like to get involved please check out the Commissioner Study page and/or contact us at commissionerstudy@exeter.ac.uk.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya