The Sandbox: VR iCBT for Children and Young People (CYP) in South Staffordshire

沙盒：青少年虚拟现实iCBT是一个为期六个月的可行性研究，以确定是否值得进一步研究和投资，为13-24岁的年轻人创造认知行为疗法（CBT）。从2019年到2021年，儿童和青少年心理健康服务机构的转诊人数增加了81%，同期儿童和青少年的紧急和危机护理转诊人数增加了59%。NHS正在寻求解决方案，以应对这一巨大的需求增长。对于一些儿童和青少年（CYP）来说，一个信息和练习项目可以帮助他们理解自己的感受，并建立自己的弹性（CBT），这是他们需要帮助他们感觉更好的一切。对其他人来说，CBT可以与一对一治疗相结合。如果个体具有神经多样性（自闭症或其他非典型的神经思维或行为模式），则难以获得心理健康支持。通常需要等待神经多样性疾病的诊断，以及等待他们的精神健康问题的诊断和治疗。这进一步加剧了个人在与他人直接沟通方面的挑战。在Cerebral，我们在线为CYP提供NHS心理健康服务，包括基于互联网的CBT（iCBT）。我们通过广泛使用和验证的评估工具YP-CORE来评估个人心理健康状况和改善情况。我们的iCBT在CYP中很受欢迎，尤其是那些神经多样性的人。神经多样化的年轻人对在线练习感到兴奋，他们快速连续地完成这些练习，并在需要的时候复习它们。我们看到所有年轻人的心理健康都有所改善，这超出了标准服务的预期结果。我们对虚拟现实技术的潜力感到非常兴奋，它可以解决年轻人心理健康方面的一些最大挑战，让生活变得更美好。通过调整我们的iCBT模块，通过VR耳机使用，CYP沉浸在虚拟世界中，不受干扰，专注于他们的锻炼，改善他们的心理健康，同时享受乐趣。我们已经将iCBT的一个模块改编为VR，并希望与NHS利益相关者和年轻人一起测试VR iCBT潜在项目的实用性、成本和可接受性。在这个项目结束时，我们将决定未来的发展和如何完成的大纲计划。

The Sandbox: VR iCBT for Young People is a six-month feasibility study to establish if further research and investment are worthwhile in the creation of a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Young People aged 13-24 years.The increase in referrals to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services has increased by 81% from 2019 to 2021, and there has been a 59% increase in urgent and crisis care referrals for children and young people during the same period. The NHS is seeking solutions to cope with this massive increase in demand.For some children and young people (CYP) a program of information and exercises which helps them to understand how they are feeling, and build their own resilience (CBT) is all they need to help them feel better. For others, CBT can be combined with one-to-one therapy. If the individual is neurodiverse (autism or other neurologically atypical patterns of thought or behaviour), the struggle to access mental health support is harder. There is usually a wait for a diagnosis of the neurodiverse condition as well as a wait for diagnosis and treatment of their mental health problem. This is further compounded by the individual's challenges in direct communication with others.At Cerebral, we provide NHS mental health services for CYP online, including internet-based CBT(iCBT). We assess individual mental health status and improvement through a widely-used and validated assessment tool, YP-CORE.Our iCBT has been very popular with CYP, especially those who are neurodiverse. Neurodiverse young people have been excited by the online exercises, completing them in rapid succession, and reviewing them when needed. We are seeing improvements in all young people's mental health which exceeds expected outcomes from standard services.We are hugely excited about the potential for Virtual Reality technology to tackle some of the biggest challenges in young people's mental health and transform lives for the better. By adapting our iCBT modules to be used through a VR headset the CYP is immersed in a virtual world, free of distractions, to focus on their exercises, improving their mental health, whilst having fun.We have already adapted one module of iCBT for VR, and want to test the practicality, cost, and acceptability of a potential program of VR iCBT with NHS stakeholders and young people.At the end of this project, we will have a decision about future development and an outline plan of how this would be done.