Helping to prevent suicide in young people/students: a user-informed review of existing online support services and their onward signposting strategies
Lead Researchers: Lucy Biddle and Rachel Cohen
Increasing levels of mental health crisis and suicide are being reported amongst UK student populations. It is unclear how best to respond to this problem, since young people are sometimes reluctant to seek help with their mental health. A wide range of potentially valuable online services are available however, existing qualitative evidence shows that many online services do not adequately help young people when experiencing suicidal crisis.
The aim of the REFER study is to improve online help provision for young people experiencing acute mental distress and suicidal thoughts, and to improve how it engages users with offline services. The first of three phases of work were completed prior to the COVID-19 lockdown; this involved identifying and mapping a full range of online crisis services to produce a descriptive map of services.
Following adjustment of the methods in light of the lockdown situation, online interviews were conducted with young people/students who have relevant lived experience of using online services, and with GPs, to hear their views on the value of these services for young people. The team then conducted a thematic analysis of these interview transcripts. The findings from these activities were used to inform the next and final phase of the study: a knowledge exchange workshop with online service providers.
Current findings
The mapping exercise identified very few age-specific services that focus on young people and suicide. Emergent findings from the interviews indicate that both young people and GPs perceive the value of online services to be as a complement to ‘real world’ mental health support, by providing immediate and responsive help for service users alongside support from offline sources, e.g. health professionals. The range of options that online services provide for crisis support (e.g. phonelines, web chat, text) is considered valuable. Data also suggests that there is significant complexity around the onward signposting process from online sites, which may in some cases discourage users from seeking ‘real world’ support.
