Kailo – A systemic approach to improving adolescent mental health
UKPRP award £5.3 million for 5 years
Kailo will develop, test and scale an evidence-informed framework that will support local partnerships to co-design strategies that address the underlying drivers of poor adolescent mental health.
Professor Peter Fonagy
Professor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Developmental Science at UCL, and Chief Executive of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
Peter Fonagy is a clinical psychologist, Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL, Professor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Developmental Science at UCL, and Chief Executive of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. Since 2013 he has been a National Clinical Advisor to NHS England/Improvement for Children and Young People’s Mental Health. He was twice appointed as NIHR Senior Investigator and is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Academy of Social Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists.
His research interests centre on issues of early attachment relationships, social cognition, borderline personality disorder, antisocial behaviour and violence. His longitudinal studies, which have linked the quality of parent-infant attachment to theory of mind development, have important implications for strategies for early prevention. Another thread of his research concerned the effectiveness of psychosocial treatments. He is one of the developers of Mentalisation Based Treatment, an evidence based therapy for severe non-psychotic mental health problems.
Professor Tim Hobbs
Chief Executive, Dartington Service Design Lab
Tim Hobbs is Chief Executive of Dartington Service Design Lab, Visiting Professor at the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL and 2021 Fellow of Practice at the Government Outcomes Lab (Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University).
He has spent two decades working with numerous public systems, foundations, communities and charities to help shape a series of bold investments and experiments designed to improve child outcomes. His research interests focus on taking a systemic and complexity-informed approach to service design and public system reform. He works to integrate rigorous research methods with principles and practices of human-centred design. His research and development activities focused predominantly on early childhood development, youth violence prevention and adolescent mental health.
Our research
Mental health and well-being of during adolescence is vitally important for young people to flourish and for the health and prosperity of society. Yet evidence suggests that poor mental health is on the rise and that the most vulnerable or disadvantaged in society suffer the most.
Highly stretched and constrained mental health systems are typically designed to react to problems once they have already become severe.
Our work will take a radically different approach. As a partnership of leading scientists, designers and practitioners working alongside communities, we are testing an approach called Kailo – which means connected or whole. Kailo is an evidence-informed framework that will support local partnerships to co-design strategies that address the underlying drivers of mental health in their area. The strategies and activities will be informed by the latest scientific evidence about promoting adolescent mental health and will be flexed and tailored to address local needs and contexts.
The framework will be implemented initially in two very different communities – Newham in East London, and rural North Devon. A bold programme of developmental research will test the feasibility of the approach across these contexts, informing refinements, wider replication and systemic and contributory impact evaluation. Results from these sites will support wider-scale implementation and impact at scale.
Consortium members
Kailo’s membership includes:
- Research expertise – including co-investigators from UCL, University of Exeter and Dartington Service Design Lab – bringing expertise in adolescent mental health, clinical service provision, systems thinking, applied healthcare modelling, data science, implementation science and developmental and systemic evaluation.
- Partners in Newham and North Devon, including leaders in public health, integrated health and social care, and locally embedded organisations working with young people.
- Mental health practice and design expertise, with co-investigators from third sector partners at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, Redthread and Shift.
Rosalind Raine
Director of NIHR Applied Research Colloboration (ARC) North Thamas
Steve Pilling
Head of the Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology
Stuart Logan
Director of NIHR Applied Research Collaborative South West Peninsula (PenARC)
Vashti Berry
Director of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Research Collaborative (ChYMe)
Martin Pitt
Director of PenCHORD and Professor of Applied Healthcare Modelling and Data Science
Peter Fuggle
Head of Programme for Clinical Services
