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，儿童最终进入公共护理机构（儿童事务专员，2020年1月）。受照料的儿童人数正在增加。社会关怀需要更有效地与家庭合作，以确保儿童安全脱离照顾（独立护理审查，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解决他们孩子的心理需求，这是临床专业知识和十年的研发成果。我们由一位对弱势儿童的心理健康具有专业知识的咨询临床心理学家创立，我们热衷于利用技术为儿童和家庭提供心理专业知识。我们的BERRI数字工具集可以识别并帮助支持儿童的心理需求，包括行为、情感健康、人际关系、风险和潜在条件指标，为护理人员和专业人员提供个性化报告。与需要临床医生花时间进行评分和解释的纸质测量相比，这是一个巨大的进步。BERRI已经为当地政府节省了数百万英镑，当它被用于公共护理机构的儿童时。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英镑，公共钱包就会得到108英镑的回报。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达到；只有不到八分之一的有心理健康需求的儿童得到专业意见。这一问题在大流行后尤其严重，因为生活费用压力大大增加了家庭压力。因此，我们建议开发一个BERRI版本，以支持处于护理边缘的家庭，并帮助他们满足孩子的需求。我们将为至少100个BERRI家庭提供心理筛查，为社会工作者和家长提供在线心理咨询，在一个试点项目中，让孩子们远离照顾。我们将收集规范数据，同时使用随机对照试验设计来显示疗效，再加上独立的社会和经济影响评估来计算人力和财务影响。改善儿童心理健康和保持家庭团聚对社会有许多积极影响。让更快乐的年轻人能够接受教育，让压力更小的父母能够就业，这将降低整个生命周期的健康和社会护理成本。

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.