Applying BERRI to support child mental health at the edge of care

由于心理健康需求未得到满足，儿童最终被送往公共护理机构(儿童事务专员，2020年1月)。在托儿所的儿童数量正在增加。社会关怀需要与家庭更有效地合作，使儿童安全地脱离照料(《独立关怀评论》，2022年5月)。为了形成有效的协作工作关系，社会工作者必须认识到父母对孩子的行为、发展和心理健康的关注。我们建议将一套变革性的心理筛查、培训和支持产品推向市场，以支持社会工作者和父母满足他们孩子的心理需求，这些需求源于临床专业知识和十年的研究和发展。我们由一位拥有弱势儿童心理健康专业知识的临床心理学家顾问创立，我们热衷于利用技术让儿童和家庭获得心理专业知识。我们的Berri数字工具包可以识别和帮助支持儿童的心理需求，涵盖行为、情绪健康、人际关系、风险和潜在状况指标等领域，为照顾者和专业人员提供个性化报告。与临床医生花费时间进行评分和解读的纸质方法相比，这是向前迈出的一大步。贝里在公共托儿所为儿童使用时，已经为地方当局节省了数百万英镑。一项独立的社会和经济影响分析显示，在我们的服务上每花费1 GB，就会有108 GB的回报回到公共财政。然而，NHS儿童和青少年心理健康服务比以往任何时候都更难获得；只有不到1/8的有心理健康需求的儿童得到了专业意见。这一问题在大流行后尤为严重，因为生活成本压力大大增加了家庭压力。因此，我们建议开发一个版本的BERRI，以支持处于护理边缘的家庭，并帮助他们满足子女的需求。我们将为至少100个有Berri的家庭提供心理筛查，并为社会工作者和家长提供在线心理咨询，以试点让儿童远离照料。我们将收集标准数据，同时使用随机对照试验设计来展示疗效，以及独立的社会和经济影响评估来计算人类和经济影响。改善儿童心理健康和保持家庭团结对社会有许多积极影响。让能够接受教育的年轻人更幸福，让压力较小的父母能够就业，这将降低整个生命周期的医疗和社会护理成本。

Children are ending up in public care due to unmet mental health needs (Children's Commissioner, January 2020). The numbers of children in care are increasing. Social care needs to work more effectively with families to keep children safely out of care (Independent Care Review, May 2022). To form effective collaborative working relationships, social workers must recognise parents' concerns about their child's behaviour, development and mental health. We propose to bring to market a transformative suite of psychological screening, training and support products to support social workers and parents with their child's psychological needs, born out of clinical expertise and a decade of research and development.Founded by a consultant clinical psychologist with specialist expertise about the mental health of vulnerable children, we are passionate about using technology to make psychological expertise accessible to children and families. Our BERRI digital toolset can identify and help to support children's psychological needs, across the domains of Behaviour, Emotional-wellbeing, Relationships, Risk and Indicators of underlying conditions, providing individualised reports for carers and professionals. This is a giant step forward compared to paper measures that take clinician time to score and interpret. BERRI has already demonstrably saved millions of pounds for local authorities when used with children in public care. An independent social-and-economic-impact-analysis shows a return of £108 to the public purse for every £1 spent on our services.However, NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are harder to reach than ever; less than 1/8 of children with mental health needs receive professional input. This issue is particularly acute post-pandemic, at a time when cost of living pressures are adding significantly to family stress.We therefore propose to develop a version of BERRI to support families at the edge of care, and help them to meet the needs of their children. We will offer psychological screening for at least 100 families with BERRI, with online psychological consultancy to social workers and parents, in a pilot to keep children out of care. We will collect normative data, whilst using a randomised controlled trial design to show efficacy, plus an independent social and economic impact evaluation to calculate human and financial impact.Improving child mental health and keeping families together has numerous positive impacts on society. Making happier young people who can engage in education, and less stressed parents who can engage in employment, it will reduce health and social care costs across the lifespan.