“We want to be the Netflix of mental health”
Tim Barker’s comparison to Kooth’s role in the future of mental health is an interesting one.
While Netflix may have achieved levels of global domination yet to be discovered by Kooth – although their rates of growth and the esteem in which they are held in their respective fields may not be beyond comparison – its very personalised offering is most certainly a path Kooth is following.
“We view the future of personalised mental healthcare as being more like Netflix,” says Tim, CEO of Kooth
“We ask a few questions, people sign up, we can recommend things for people, understand whether that is helpful or not.
“In our view, the future might be algorithms, but we always want to have our practitioners available, they’ll always be there alongside people, checking on you, possibly nudging you, engaging with you.
“So in that way, it’s probably Netflix with a human alongside you.”
As the UK’s leading mental health platform for children and young people, Kooth has grown exponentially over the past few years to occupy a place at the very heart of the growing need for support in this vital area.
From its first commission with Stockport NHS Trust, the start of a near 20-year developing journey and relationship in delivering mental health support to the NHS, Kooth is now in use in 90 per cent of NHS Trusts to support young people aged between 10 and 25.
Last year, its services were used by over 200,000 people, a total which continues to grow.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when exponential growth was seen in both digital healthcare and the need for mental health support, Kooth was ready and able to assist, growing in response to the ongoing and significant demand for its resource.
Tracing its roots back to 2001, when therapist Elaine Bousfield recognised the potential for digital mental health, Kooth continues to thrive. It has grown its workforce from 170 to 350 people in the past year alone, which is indicative of the demands on its resource, almost doubling it clinical practitioner team to over 200 people.
“We aspire to be the first port of call to provide an early indication of what is coming next,” says Tim. who joined as CEO in January 2020, just as the pandemic was coming onto the radar of an anxious UK.
“We recognise the early warning signs. We want to reach more people early, everything is designed to put people in control.
“When people use our service, it is not just about the therapeutic effect, there is also the social impact.
“We can help young people articulate their struggle and what they are suffering with, we help them to understand they are not alone in the issues they are facing, and help them how to verbalise that with others.
“It’s about being on the journey. That might be a ten-step journey but we are committed to getting better outcomes faster for people for people who use Kooth. It’s really exciting to see the positive effect that has on an individual’s mental health.”
Mental health support has never been more badly needed in the UK than since March 2020.
Kooth’s research has helped to show the increasing and changing demands of its users – for example, there was a year-on-year increase of over 70 per cent in people experiencing eating disorders.
“We’ve really grown to increase our support across the nation in providing easy access to welcoming mental healthcare,” says Tim.
“With the face to face support shutting down, we recognised the need across the regions for more support.
“Although we are early intervention, 60 per cent of people coming to the service were in the category of severe so went direct to CAMHS, but we work alongside the NHS to signpost them to the acute care they need.
“That will continue into the future, we’re still very much working on that. Even with the success of the vaccination programme, people have gone through trauma, whether they have lost loved ones, their career, their ambitions. The after effects of COVID will last a generation.
“It was satisfying to be able to play our role in supporting the national through COVID, as we will do through the recovery.”
But while Kooth’s support was more needed than ever – and uninterrupted, with the team stepping up to the recruitment and resource challenge – they too faced the same issues of businesses globally. Barely six weeks into Tim’s time with Kooth, the business decided to shut down and work remotely.
“We threw our business plans out of the window,” he says.
“Throughout the last year, every twist and turn of this horrific journey has been seen in our own journey.
“The discussions that had been taking place with a view to rolling out in the following 12 months all of a sudden became a rapid roll-out. In Birmingham, we did that in three weeks.
“From the first half of last year onwards, we have been incredibly busy replicating our service across the country, which has given us even greater insight into the local and national view of the health of the nation is.”
And while those effects have been catastrophic for so many families worldwide, one positive to take from the pandemic is the greater emphasis and empathy around mental health.
“Mental health has been brought into the mainstream over the past 18 months. Just look at the levels of coverage we’ve seen in the media,” says Tim.
“I’d challenge anyone in the UK to say they have not been impacted. We’ve all had a taste of isolation, we’ve struggled with anxiety, isolation and uncertainty. But there is, as a result of that, recognition that mental health is part of a whole person’s health.”
And in going forward and continuing to develop its products, services and geographical reach, sport is an area which has not escaped Kooth’s attention. Building on its huge presence in work with young people, it has built partnerships with Durham FA and Kent FA to deliver mental health support to its young players.
“We’re doing a lot of work in grassroots football, working with coaches on positive mental health in sports, to champion the mental health of boys and young men,” says Tim.
“Football coaches are viewed as role models, they can send out a great message and help reduce the stigma.
“We want to continue to normalise the topic of mental health in communities, young males can be hard to reach but our focus on supporting sports will hopefully help with that.”
“We have continued to work in partnership and provide new ways of reaching people and creating the tools to do that. Today services are freely available, with over 7.5m people in the UK needing to access them.
“From that early journey we are now commissioned in 90 per cent of NHS for supporting young people, with increasing take-up of our service for adults which is the same kind of operating model.”
