The DISCOVER implementation study: Investigating the sustainability and scale up of a schools based intervention to improve mental wellbeing of 16-18 years olds across six regions in England

Aims

1. To provide a theoretically informed assessment of the factors influencing successful and sustained implementation of the DISCOVER programme in secondary schools.

2. To publish evidence-based recommendations and guidance about future implementation of DISCOVER across the secondary education sector.

Objectives
1. To develop an outcomes measurement framework, including both self-reported and objective assessments, that can be used to track ongoing effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the intervention

2. To support sites involved in the BESST trial to run further cohorts of DISCOVER, alongside mobilising new sites to implement the DISCOVER intervention.

3. To understand the factors supporting implementation of the intervention using the CFIR framework

4. To evaluate the cost effectiveness of the revised DISCOVER model in the general population of 16-18 year old students.

5. To consolidate findings into a DISCOVER implementation guide for sites

Brief Educational workshops in Secondary Schools Trial (BESST)
Poor mental health in young people is increasing, with clear evidence of mounting psychiatric problems. However, less than a quarter of young people with mental health problems can access services, meaning there is an urgent need for easily accessible and effective mental health resources. Common barriers include the limited provision of services, reluctance of adolescents to seek professional help as well as a fear of stigmatisation.

Young people’s mental health is a major government priority, with current policy advocating the development of effective education based mental health care to prevent the escalation of mental health problems, improve access and reduce service waiting times. However, existing school-delivered programmes for depression and anxiety only have modest effects. These programmes are also mainly focused on younger children.

BESST is an exciting clinical trial designed to understand whether a group workshop programme, called DISCOVER, can positively impact the mental health of 16-18-year-old sixth-form students.

The full study protocol can be found here.

What is DISCOVER?
The DISCOVER workshop programme is an award-winning, school-based programme for sixth-form students who experience stress, anxiety, or low mood. This workshop programme was developed with a Teenage Advisory Group of 16–18-year-olds to reach young people more easily via a self-referral route. The DISCOVER programme is aimed at equipping young people with practical skills to manage stress, worry, and other challenges they may face in their academic and personal lives.

How the trial works
BESST seeks to understand how effective the DISCOVER workshop programme is in reducing symptoms of depression (and other outcomes) in students attending the workshop compared to those who receive their usual school care but no workshop. Responses of the two groups were then compared to understand whether the workshop effectively reduced the severity of symptoms on the various questionnaires at three and six month follow-up.