The production and promotion of free-access online video-driven interactive training for families in ‘skills-based caring’ for pro-active self-help treatment of young people’s mental ill-health resulting from the societal impacts of COVID-19.

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The impact of Covid-19 is significantly affecting the mental health and wellbeing of young people. In particular, it can lead to the growth of mental illnesses such as Anxiety, Depression and Eating Disorders.Pro-active self-help, facilitated by the child's family, can be effective in treating mental ill-health - if families are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge. The New Maudsley Method for training families in 'skills-based caring' (developed at King's College) has proved to be effective in facilitating such pro-active self-help in a family context.So, working in collaboration with King's College, we are providing a free online resource that will enable all families to access video-driven interactive training activities, based on the New Maudsley Method, in their family unit, within their own home. This will help them to develop the vital skills and knowledge to facilitate family-based pro-active self-help for the mental health and wellbeing of their young people.We have been able to engage the involvement of ‘experts-by-experience’. These parent/’child’ pairs have given selflessly of their time and emotional energy in filmed interviews in which they have explained how ‘skills-based caring’ helped them. And this has produced so many insightful and inspirational film clips that it will take longer to build these into the resource to help other families. So, the resource will be released online in early 2021 at www.futurelearn.com/partners/family-mental-wealthWe have established a collaboration with FutureLearn who will host the resource on their site, which will bring it to more families across the world. FutureLearn provide a helpful safe ‘social-learning’ environment whereby people can also learn from one another’s experiences, which will be help families to know that they are not alone with the mental health challenges they are facing. Helen Fuller, Global Healthcare Lead at FutureLearn says: “At FutureLearn our mission is to transform access to education. We do this on a global scale by working with our dedicated expert partners, to create credible courses that make a positive impact on people’s lives. We are delighted to announce these new, expert-led courses, which will help families gain the knowledge they need to build their mental health and wellbeing." And we have begun to develop a collaboration with a number of NHS Foundation Trusts with a view to providing this online resource to families in their area, as a blueprint for national adoption.