Evaluation Highlights Tellmi’s Benefit to Stretched School Mental Health Services

In November 2022, Tellmi was commissioned by NHS Somerset to provide mental health support to young people. Tellmi was simultaneously funded by the South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN) to conduct a study to interrogate the increase in the number of young people in Somerset experiencing anxiety (NHS Somerset, 2023). Tellmi is an anonymous, age-banded app where young people (CYP) can share experiences and support each other. 100% pre-moderation and preemptive counsellor intervention make Tellmi safe for children as young as 11. Filtering by topic makes it easy for young people to connect to relevant conversations and communities and a directory of 600+ resources is filtered by topic and postcode.

The Tellmi anxiety study, which involved quantitative and qualitative research as well as 1-2-1 interviews with young people in the area identified significant barriers to support in Somerset. Young people described how, for schools, ‘talking’ about mental health was a kind of box ticking exercise, but there was no real guidance on what to do, or where to go for support. School counsellors have lengthy waiting lists and when young people are struggling with more serious mental health problems, the only solution that schools ever suggest is CAMHS. As one participant said: 

“CAMHS is the number one place where young people would go if they had mental health issues but you can't even get seen.” 

Schools are understandably risk averse so they are reluctant to signpost students to other support services but between April 2021 and March 2022 there were 10,050 referrals to CAMHS (NHS Digital, 2022) and young people waited an average of 34 days to be seen. Rather than directing young people towards alternative support that they can access immediately, schools continue to funnel students towards oversubscribed CAMHS services where they join a waiting list and are frequently turned away. Ultimately, this means that many young people end up getting no support at all. 

There is a wealth of evidence to show that early intervention prevents mental health issues worsening so it is vital that school staff, who are often a young person’s first point of contact, are able to signpost students towards other local or digital support services. 

“There's no signposting to places that are available. I did a survey and it said about all these different services in Somerset that could help with mental health and I'd never heard of any of them… I wish I'd gone earlier but it just never really felt like I could go and talk to anyone. I was just always a bit scared.”

Throughout this project, Tellmi worked with schools and local service providers such as Young Somerset and Time To Talk to try and raise awareness of the number of alternative support solutions in the area. 

"I have been really impressed with the Tellmi team; going above and beyond to clearly explain and promote the app and they cannot do enough to work in partnership with our team. The app is an asset to the pathway of support for the young people we see; we promote the use of it to support them while waiting for support, for peer support between sessions and to continue on their journey of coping when support has ended."

Sarah Cox, Service Manager, Young Somerset

Within the Tellmi directory, an NHS portal provides all young people with direct access to local mental health services. It makes it much easier for young people to find support, for example, seventeen year old Amy, who was struggling with anxiety, used the Tellmi NHS Somerset portal to connect to the Chat Health Service who referred her to  ‘Off the Record’, a local service where she is now receiving counselling. This collaborative approach, where Tellmi becomes a front door to local service provision, ensures that young people get the support they need before they end up in crisis.

Tellmi Co-CEO Kerstyn Comley said:

“Participating in the Health Equity Innovation Challenge 2022/23 has been excellent. It has given us the opportunity to pilot new approaches to impact evaluation and engage closely with new groups of young people. We have learnt directly from them how to improve Tellmi for young people who face health inequalities. The team at South-West AHSN has been attentive and supportive throughout the project, it has been a pleasure to work with them.”

If you would like to find out more or get a quote for commissioning Tellmi in your area or school please contact us and we will be in touch.