Mental health experts from across UCL have launched a partnership with YouTube to address the shortage of high-quality mental health content available for children and young people.
Growing numbers of young people are turning to YouTube for information and advice. As a result, it is crucial that content is accurate and evidence-based, especially in relation to mental health.
Earlier this week, the collaboration between UCL and YouTube was launched with an event that saw mental health experts from across the university join forces with YouTube Health to discuss ambitious plans to train over 100 clinical academic staff on content creation, with hopes to create UCL's own 'clinical creators network'.
This network would share their expertise in mental health on the platform to ensure that the latest research findings are accessible to the young people searching for information online.
Speaking about the collaboration, event chair and organiser Dr Jenny Shand (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences), said: "Last year, YouTube saw 950 million views on mental health condition videos in the UK. This staggering figure underscores the high demand for mental health content.
"YouTube offers accessibility to underserved communities who might not otherwise seek help and this, paired with our UCL academics' decades of expertise and cutting-edge mental health research, holds a lot of potential."
Alongside training clinical academics, initiatives were also announced to co-create teaching materials around being a YouTube content creator for students and embed this into UCL course curricula to equip the next generation of 'clinical creators'.
As the demand for mental health services continues to rise, accessible, expert-led content will be an effective way to provide those in need with informative and accurate advice.
Speaking at the panel discussion, Head of the UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences and clinical Professor Peter Fonagy CBE, said: "This initiative presents a huge opportunity. Not just for the thousands of children and young people desperately searching for high-quality mental health information, but also potentially for specialist mental health services.
"We see the enormous and accumulating wait list pressure that these teams are put under, so I believe that there is real potential here to educate and inform young people and parents and elevate some of that pressure."
Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health at Google/YouTube, Dr Garth Graham, said: "YouTube Health is extremely proud to be partnering with UCL to support academic experts in making evidence-based mental health information and research videos accessible to the entire UK population and beyond.
"This is a vital initiative in our ongoing efforts to support youth mental wellbeing in particular on YouTube."
