Safety Nets Feasibility V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
‘Safety Nets’: A feasibility study of a community based social prescribing intervention involving combined physical activity and psychoeducation for young people on mental health service waiting lists
IRAS ID
304539
Contact name
Clare Fenton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leed and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
TBC, Sponsoring NHS organisation; TBC, CRN Portfolio
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
There are increasing rates of mental health problems in children and young people, leading to long waiting times to access treatment in UK Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Many children’s mental health deteriorates further whilst waiting for treatment. Services have started introducing interventions to support young people who are on waiting lists for accessing treatment. There is proof of concept and acceptability for these interventions, however there is a strong need for further robust research to test clinical and cost effectiveness in children with mental health problems.
‘Safety Nets’ is an intervention for young people who are waiting to access treatment for anxiety and/or depression from CAMHS. It is an 8 week group programme, based at a local professional sports club. It is run jointly by a CAMHS clinician, and a staff member from the sports club, and each weekly session combines a physical activity session followed by a psychoeducation session.
‘Safety Nets’ has previously been run as a service evaluation, which found high levels of acceptability and preliminary positive impact on the mental wellbeing of the young people attending groups. There was positive feedback through qualitative interviews from young people, parents, clinicians and sports club staff. This current feasibility project aims to help inform manualisation of the ‘Safety Nets’ intervention and to assess the potential for a future fully powered randomised controlled trial. This is important to ensure that this intervention is helpful for young people, and if found to be effective, ‘Safety Nets’ could be offered by CAMHS to support young people who are waiting for treatment for anxiety and/or depression. This could prevent deterioration of symptoms whilst on waiting lists and increase capacity in CAMHS.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/YH/0277
Date of REC Opinion
20 Dec 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion