About the project
Mental health issues represent a key growing concern for primary care health services. Mental health demands increasingly exceed time and other resources available within primary care settings. The progressive shift away from the previously dominant practice of regulated primary care professionals performing health assessments and towards patients completing self-reported health measures reflects the disparity between demand and resource observable across primary care services. Consequently, there is growing interest in the use and development of (digital) self-reported assessments to increase access to mental health services for a wider range of people by facilitating the efficient identification of individual needs, in this way indicating appropriate care pathways. Identifying needs early using self-reported assessments can help prevent the potential worsening of the negative effects of mental health conditions.
The main objective of this study is to trial the interRAI Self-reported Assessment for Mental Health (interRAI SAMH) in the United Kingdom (UK). The interRAI SAMH is a self-reported assessment questionnaire designed to determine the mental health and physical wellbeing of community-dwelling adults. The proposed pilot will investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and cultural appropriateness of the interRAI SAMH for use by university students with mental health needs, with the option of completing the assessment with the assistance of a self-nominated supportive other.
The interRAI SAMH was developed by interRAI (www.interRAI.org), an international, not-for-profit healthcare network of researchers, clinicians and policy experts specialising in the design, development and implementation of a comprehensive range of screening and assessment measures with the aim of improving quality of care and quality of life for vulnerable people of all ages. The proposed study is part of a larger international programme of research led by the University of Waterloo, Canada, investigating the feasibility, acceptability and utility of the interRAI SAMH. Equivalent pilots are at various stages in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, India, New Zealand, Nigeria and the United States. The proposed pilot is the first in the UK and funded by Brighton and Sussex Medical School Higher Education Innovation Funding and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for Kent, Surrey and Sussex (ARC KSS).
University students have been identified as a priority group in relation to mental health support provision, with figures indicating an increase in the proportion of university students reporting a mental health condition to their university from under 1% in 2010/11 to 5.8% in 2022/23, with these figures also considered to be an underestimate. Several factors are thought to contribute to high mental health and wellbeing needs among university students, including the transition away from home, academic and financial pressures, and the absence of familiar social and emotional support networks.
Findings from the pilot will enhance current understanding of the mental health needs of university students in the UK and provide information on the appropriateness of the interRAI SAMH as a self-reported measure of mental health needs. Findings will also produce useful data to inform a multi-national, modified Delphi panel study to inform the development and revision of the interRAI SAMH to produce a final version for on-going use.
The project is jointly funded by BSMS and the NIHR ARC KSS.