Helping young people to bounce back from anxiety and depression: Leveraging socialsupport networks in the local community

年轻人的焦虑和抑郁是常见的，而且会导致残疾，在大流行期间对未来的持续不确定性可能会进一步增加病例数量。帮助有精神困扰的年轻人是英国政府的当务之急，以改善国家的健康和福祉。然而，有情绪困难的残疾人可能难以获得心理健康支持。年轻人可以从他们的社交网络中找到另一种或更多的支持来源。社会处方计划就是一个很好的例子，它通过地方组织提供了一系列项目，年轻人可以在这些项目中找到适合自己需求和偏好的活动，同时也有与他人建立联系的重要机会。重要的是，对于那些寻求帮助因心理健康知识水平低和耻辱感而变得复杂的年轻人来说，社会处方可能是一个更可行的选择。尽管社会处方有这种潜力，但很少有框架来理解为什么这些计划有益于年轻人，以及它们的治疗益处是否在于塑造社会支持网络。关于其可行性、可接受性以及在减少青少年焦虑/抑郁症状方面的潜在有效性的数据也很少。我们建议通过与社区组织和参与多机构集体（MAC）项目的家庭合作来解决这些重要的差距，该项目是一项社会处方计划，由伦敦纽汉自治市的HeadStart团队协调。为了更好地理解为什么社会处方有效，以及它是否通过加强社会支持而有效，我们将与社区组织代表（“链接工作者”）进行个人访谈和焦点小组的混合，他们直接与这些项目中的年轻人合作。定性分析将探讨不同方案在实践中的共性和差异，以确定变革机制。为了评估社会处方的可行性和可接受性及其在减少焦虑和/或抑郁的青少年症状方面的潜力，将从100名参加MAC的年轻人及其父母/照顾者的传票中收集信息。我们将记录符合条件的总人数、参与人数和完成安置的人数。为了评估可接受性，我们将要求年轻人和他们的父母/照顾者完成一份问卷，重点是管理症状的整体帮助，他们的享受，他们是否会推荐给朋友，以及他们喜欢/不喜欢的方面。为了评估减轻症状的潜在有效性，将每周对20名年轻人进行焦虑/抑郁症状的调查。对这些数据的分析和建模将确定我们样本中症状在干预过程中得到改善的年轻人的比例。这些数据将奠定基础的工作，为未来的完善和评估的社会prescribingefforts精神困扰的年轻人。因此，持续参与传播至关重要。除了3个计划的学术出版物，我们将产生一个非学术报告和信息图表描述的结果，以合作的利益相关者，伦敦区纽汉董事和公共卫生英格兰。

Anxiety and depression in young people are common and disabling, and the continueduncertainty about the future over the course of the pandemic may further increase thenumber of cases. Helping young people with mental distress is an urgent UK governmentpriority to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation going forward. However, youngpeople with emotional difficulties can struggle with accessing mental health support. Analternative or additional source of support that young people may be able to draw on can befound in their social networks. Exemplifying this, social prescribing schemes offer a range ofprogrammes through local organisations, where young people can identify activities that suittheir needs and preferences, while also having the crucial opportunity to connect with others.Importantly, social prescribing may be a more viable alternative to accessing and engagingwith services for young people where help-seeking is complicated by lower mental healthliteracy and stigma. Despite this potential of social prescribing, there are few frameworks forunderstanding why these schemes benefit young people and whether their therapeuticbenefits lie in shaping social support networks. There is also a paucity of data on theirfeasibility, acceptability, and potential effectiveness in reducing symptoms in youth withanxiety/depression. We propose to address these important gaps by working with community organisations andfamilies participating in the Multi-Agency Collective (MAC) project, a social prescribingscheme, coordinated by the HeadStart team in the London Borough of Newham. To better understand why social prescribing works and if it works by enhancing socialsupport, we will run a mixture of individual interviews and focus groups with communityorganisation representatives ("link workers") who work directly with young people in theseprogrammes. Qualitative analysis will explore commonalities and differences in practiceacross the different programmes, to identify mechanisms of change. To assess the feasibilityand acceptability of social prescribing and their potential in reducing symptoms for youngpeople with anxiety and/or depression, information will be gathered from a consecutiveseries of 100 young people and their parents/carers enrolled to the MAC. We will record thetotal numbers eligible, those who participate, and those who complete their placements. Toassess acceptability we will ask young people and their parents/carers to complete aquestionnaire, focusing on overall helpfulness in managing symptoms, their enjoyment,whether they would recommend it to a friend, and aspects they liked/disliked. To assesspotential effectiveness in reducing symptoms, a diverse subset of 20 young people will besurveyed weekly on anxiety/depression symptoms. Analysis and modelling of these data willdetermine the proportion of young people in our sample whose symptoms improve over thecourse of the intervention. These data will lay the ground work for future refinement and evaluation of social prescribingefforts for mental distress in young people. Therefore, continuous engagement indissemination is essential. In addition to 3 planned academic publications, we will produce anon-academic report and infographic describing the findings to partnering stakeholders,London Borough of Newham Directors and Public Health England.