Skip to main content

We use necessary cookies that allow our site to work. We also set optional cookies that help us improve our website. For more information about the types of cookies we use, visit our Cookies policy.

Cookie settings

Since 2020, we've had a partnership with UCL to help improve our digital youth service, The Mix. In this blog, Bohdana Dock, Head of Data, Research and Evaluation delves into the aims and outcomes of the partnership and how we're supporting young people across the UK with evidence-led services, as well as exploring what the future of the partnership looks like.

Young people talking

MHI's commitment to evidence-led services

With the number of young people experiencing mental health challenges rising year on year, it’s vital that charities like ours provide services that are accessible, engaging and effective, ensuring every young person can get the help they need.

At Mental Health Innovations (MHI), we are committed to listening to our users and using data, clinical expertise and evidence to design innovative digital services that we continually refine to ensure young people achieve the best possible outcomes. The Mix, now powered by MHI, offers free, confidential support, expert advice and a welcoming community, all designed with and for young people. Young people can reach out to The Mix for support with mental health issues, relationships, work, money or anything else that is troubling them.

Find out more about partnering with The Mix

Our partnership with UCL

In 2020, The Mix - our digital support service for under-25s - attended UCL’s Community Research Initiative focused on building research collaborations that benefit communities and students where I met Prof. Leslie Gutman, a world leading expert in Behaviour Change and mental health. As our goals were perfectly aligned around improving outcomes for young people, we developed a research project focusing on The Mix counselling service and offered it to students. This marked the beginning of our long standing partnership.

Over the past five years, UCL students of the MSc Behaviour Change and BSc Psychology undergraduate programme have been conducting research supervised by Prof Leslie Gutman focused on The Mix’s services, including counselling, discussion boards, group chats, helpline and more recently also social media.

These researchers select a dissertation topic identified by The Mix - typically a priority area we are focusing on - and carry out applied research from either a user or service provider perspective, often both. The findings enable us to better understand our services including barriers and facilitators to engagement and accessing support; we use them to inform service design and improvement strategies.

Key highlights

Five-year UCL partnership

Applied research by students supervised by Prof Leslie Gutman has helped improve The Mix, the UK's leading digital charity for young people powered by Mental Health Innovations. The Mix offers free, confidential support, expert advice and a welcoming community, all designed with and for young people.

Case studies on improving services for young people

Counselling disengagement rates dropped from 32% to 23% due to introduction of pre-session resources, a check-in tool, and better training. In peer group chats, themed sessions, smaller groups, increased moderation, and emotional literacy resources have boosted participants’ sense of safety and emotional literacy.

Student impact

Student researchers gain valuable real-world experience, while their findings inform service design and add to the wider evidence base.

Future focus

Optimising the impact of The Mix’s social media posts, and exploring barriers and facilitators to men’s engagement with Shout, our free text service providing 24/7 crisis support.

Building a Strong Evidence Base for Innovation

Given the innovative nature of our services, there is often limited existing research to draw on. Over the years, this partnership enabled us to build a large body of robust evidence on the effectiveness of digital mental health interventions for young people in a cost effective way. It enabled us to identify ‘what works’ and to introduce improvements directly benefiting our users.

The benefits of the partnership extend beyond The Mix, the wider mental health sector also gains from this research. Six research papers written as part of the partnership have already been published in peer reviewed journals, with four more articles currently under review, and another four papers in progress. To explore the research, please see the links at the end of the blog.

Moreover, the student researchers also benefit from the partnership with many finding their research a meaningful and useful experience that helps them launch their research career.

“Working on a research project with The Mix under Prof. Leslie Gutman’s supervision was a unique opportunity to apply and extend my learning from the MSc in Behaviour Change in practice, as well as a key stepping stone towards my career as a Behavioural Science consultant….

As a Master’s student, it was a unique opportunity to conduct a thorough research project with real-world impact. The skills gained, such as project planning, data collection and analysis, and user-centred design were invaluable, enabling me to smoothly transition to working as a Behavioural Scientist consultant on behaviour change initiatives across the public and private sector. The principles of taking a systematic, evidence-based and co-participatory approach now underpin all my work, enabling outputs that are both useful to collaborators and clients alike….

Working alongside a passionate team to support young people’s well-being was close to my heart and helped cement my desire to continue advancing support in this area, where compassion, integrity and caring deeply are at the core.”

Janina Tuuli, student researcher

Explore the case studies

What's next?

To continue improving our social media impact, several UCL students have recently explored what helps and what prevents young people from engaging with The Mix’s posts.

Looking ahead, we’re turning our attention to Shout, our free text service providing 24/7 crisis support across the UK. Like many services in the sector, the majority of support requests come from women. To encourage more men to reach out, UCL students will investigate what helps or hinders men from engaging with Shout.

“Our collaboration has shown how applied research can be a powerful force for good—transforming services, empowering students, and improving outcomes for young people. Behaviour change offers vital insights into how digital mental health tools can evolve to better meet young people’s needs, with innovations that are grounded in evidence, shaped by lived experience, and designed for real-world impact. I’m excited to continue working together to further optimise these services for diverse young people—ensuring they are inclusive, responsive, and truly fit for purpose.”

Professor Leslie Gutman

List of published articles:

Ananya, A., Tuuli, J., Perowne, R., & Gutman, L. M. (2025). Barriers and Facilitators to User Engagement and Moderation for Web-Based Peer Support Among Young People: Qualitative Study Using the Behavior Change Wheel Framework. JMIR Human Factors, 12(1), e64097.

Burlibasa, A., Campagnola, M., & Gutman, L. M. (2025). Barriers and facilitators to delivery of a webchat mental health helpline service for young people: A qualitative study using the Behaviour Change Wheel. British Journal of Counseling and Guidance.

Campagnola, M., Burlibasa, A., & Gutman, L. M. (2022). Barriers and enablers to the delivery of email communication for a helpline service for young people. PEC innovation, 1, 100059.

Lim, Z., Lim, S. Y., Lu S., & Gutman, L. M. Barriers and enablers to young people’s posting, responding and reading behaviours on mental health forums using the Behaviour Change Wheel. JMIR Human Factors.

Mawdsley, G., Richiello, M., & Gutman, L. M. (2022a). Barriers and facilitators of young people’s engagement with webchat counselling: A qualitative analysis informed by the Behaviour Change Wheel. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 22(3), 725-735.

Perowne, R., & Gutman, L. M. (2024). Barriers and enablers to the moderation of self-harm content for a young person’s online forum. Journal of mental health, 33(3), 357-365.

Richiello, M. G., Mawdsley, G., & Gutman, L. M. (2022b). Using the Behaviour Change Wheel to identify barriers and enablers to the delivery of webchat counselling for young people. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 22(1), 130-139.

List of articles that are under review:

Au, Angel, Jan, A., Shua, P., & Gutman, L.M. (under review). Signposting in Young People’s Digital Mental Health Helplines: A Mixed Methods Examination. JMIR Human Factors.

Dhariwal, R., Song, M., & Gutman, L.M. (under review). Perspectives of young people and volunteers on the delivery of a mental health helpline. JMIR Formative Research.

Phua, S., & Gutman, L.M. (under review). A Mixed-Methods Examination of Young People’s Experiences with a Mental Health Helpline During and Post-COVID-19. JMIR Formative Research.

You might also be interested in: