Why did you choose to commission the Shout service from Mental Health Innovations?
We originally commissioned the keyword partnership with Shout in November 2022. At that time, we were aware through evidence such as ‘Lockdown Lowdown’ (a survey commissioned by Scottish Government in partnership with YouthLink Scotland and Young Scot exploring young people’s immediate concerns following the Covid 19 pandemic), that concern for mental wellbeing was a significant issue for young people. We were also aware of pressures on staff and services as they remobilised following the pandemic. We identified the Shout text messaging service as an opportunity to support both young people in need of support and the workforce, in particular staff in community-based projects/services and schools. The Shout text messaging service provides a service that is available 24/7, which staff could discuss with and encourage the young person to access when they are not within the school environment or attending community services.
What was your objective when you commissioned this service?
We primarily targeted the service to the 16-24 age group and the objective was (and remains) to provide a 24/7 accessible service in Fife to support young people who experience crisis and/or distress. In this way, we are providing support and addressing the concerns that young people expressed about their mental wellbeing in the evidence cited above.
What features of the service were appealing and answered your goals?
Without a doubt, the fact that the Shout service provides free, confidential, anonymous 24/7 text messaging support to anyone who is struggling to cope was fundamental. In addition, the service supports individuals by responding to ‘where they are at’ at the point of making contact. This was really helpful to promote the service as being for everyone, not just those experiencing crisis, but equally for those needing to speak to someone about a one-off situation which has caused them to feel upset, such as a young person who had an argument with friends at school. Finally, it was important to us as commissioners, that the conversations were held with trained volunteers and clinically supervised with a comprehensive escalation process in place.
When and how did you launch your keyword? Can you talk to us about any successful initiatives or campaigns?
Ongoing promotion and awareness raising of the service across Fife over the past 2-3 years has been crucial to maintaining levels of usage via the keyword partnership. We originally launched the partnership in December 2022 and focussed on digital promotion, through social media platforms and local press releases. We then carried out a wide dissemination of physical resources and posters across Fife in early 2023, including working with Stagecoach to have Shout/Fife keyword partnership posters put up inside every bus operating in Fife. We chose this specific promotion as children and young people in Scotland have free bus travel up to the age of 22. We created a short video on YouTube to promote the service across social media platforms and also repeated press releases, social media promotion and poster dissemination to schools, sports centres and colleges at key times of the year, namely in the run up to exam time in Scotland.
Posters from Fife Health & Social Care Partnership were used to showcase the service to young people.
What impact have you seen to date? How have you used the insights and analysis from your keyword reports to change or enhance the mental health support you provide?
The data reports we receive from Mental Health Innovations are reviewed by the Fife Suicide Prevention Young Person’s Reference Group, a multiagency group which includes representation from CAMHS, School Nursing Service, Social Work, Educational Psychology, Education Service, Health Promotion Service, Community Learning & Development, Safer Communities Team, Further/Higher Educational Establishments, and third sector colleagues, including Samaritans, Penumbra, Barnardo’s and DAPL who are a local third sector partner commissioned to provide the school counselling service in Fife. The information within the data reports has helped to inform specific actions within the Fife Suicide Prevention Action Plan and can be taken back to each service to help inform local services.
What are the benefits of working with MHI?
The regular catch ups with our Partnerships Manager are really helpful to explore the data reports and what they show, and identify opportunities to utilise content marketing toolkits or options for further marketing support. For example, we recently incorporated tailored social media assets focussing on loneliness at Christmas as part of our local Fife festive social media campaign. We also share relevant news and developments from Mental Health Innovations - which powers the Shout service - with our Fife Suicide Prevention Network, which is an email network of over 300 staff and practitioners across Fife. This helps to maintain awareness of the service amongst the key young person’s workforce.
What would you say to other people looking to implement a mental health support service such as Shout?
Absolutely, do it! What I would say is the commissioning itself is not enough, what really makes it work is the commitment and capacity to continuously market, promote and raise awareness of the keyword partnership with your audience at local level. There’s no point in commissioning a service unless people know about it! It’s also been important for us to work with and develop relationships with Mental Health Innovations to identify opportunities to work together to grow engagement with the keyword partnership.