A pilot study evaluating whether the Growing Minds Check-In for Young People (GMCI-Y) is acceptable and improves help-seeking behaviour, intentions & efficacy in adolescents

The Growing Minds Check-In for Young People (GMCI-Y) is a brief, self-directed online mental health check-in and referral tool. Participants will access the GMCI-Y via secure online website built by Netfront, our IT partner and host-organisation. The GMCI-Y has been co-designed by experts and end-users (i.e., clinicians, researchers, young people, parents). The GMCI-Y contains four primary components: 1) questions about the young person’s current mental health concerns and their impact; 2) validated measures of mental health and wellbeing symptoms (i.e., the Youth-Report Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17, Kessler Psychological Distress Scale); 3) automatically generated feedback based on their responses. This feedback will consist of a summary of their responses to subjective questions (e.g., you told us that...), and feedback on their scores on validated measures. The K10 will be scored using validated ranges indicating level of distress (low, moderate, high, very high). PSC-17-Y scores will be categorised into risk profiles for each subscale according to clinical cutoffs and a brief text summary of what their score for each subscale indicates will be given (e.g., for the internalising problems subscale, a score of 5+ suggests they may be feeling anxious stressed or down). Encouraging messaging such as "you're not alone, lots of people feel this way and support is available" will also be given to those who score above clinical cutoffs. Participants will not be given their raw scores; and 4) recommendations for support and online evidence-based programs, services, and information matched to level of need and identified areas of concern. Young people will be given 1-3 top recommendations for each concern and can select which concern they would like to see recommendations for. They will also have access to the full library of recommendations with filters (e.g., concern, cost, length, platform, self-directed or guided). All recommendations include descriptions that identify the focus, evidence supporting it, cost (if applicable), and length. Recommended online programs have been evaluated by the research team to meet minimum criteria for inclusion (at least one evaluation or research trial demonstrating the program’s effectiveness at improving mental health outcomes in adolescents). Examples of recommended programs include BRAVE, ClearlyMe, Sleep Ninja, and Chilled Out Online. Other online resources (e.g., information, peer support platforms) were evaluated for inclusion based on credibility/reputation of the developing body, content (e.g., recency, use of evidence-based strategies), and relevance (e.g., My Circle by Kids Helpline, ReachOut, QLife). The GMCI-Y will take approximately 15 minutes to complete in one-sitting, but participants may save their progress and complete it across multiple sittings. The intervention is self-directed and fully online, thus can be completed at a location of the participant’s choosing. Participants will be randomised to either the intervention group who will gain access to the GMCI-Y immediately or the Waitlist control group, who will gain optional access one month after completing pre-assessment questionnaires. The intervention group will be required to complete the GMCI-Y once but will have optional access to complete the GMCI-Y a second time after completing the one-month follow-up measures. This will allow us to examine how many young people choose to use the GMCI-Y again. Young people will be prompted to save their feedback and recommendations as a PDF and share it with a trusted adult or their GP. They will also be reminded that the GMCI-Y is not designed to provide a comprehensive assessment or diagnosis and therefore may not identify issues that would be identified by a full clinical assessment conducted by a health practitioner. Adherence to the intervention will be monitored by the number of questions completed by participants. A notification schedule will be developed so that participants who meet the following conditions will be reminded via multiple communication channels (e.g. email, SMS text message, phone call) at various times (e.g. 1-week past invitation, 2 weeks past invitation): • Participants who complete baseline questionnaires but do not register for the GMCI-Y • Participants who register but do not complete all GMCI-Y questions