United Kingdom
United States
Published March, 2021
We know that Kooth makes a positive difference in people’s mental health, but as a relatively new context for delivering therapy, we need to understand how and why these services work and exactly what the true benefits are to Kooth service users.
The Theory of Change (ToC) sets the structure to truly start answering these questions.
This is groundbreaking. We are at the forefront of identifying the evidence that illustrates what people actually want and need from digital mental health services.
Download the full reports below:
Chief Executive Officer of Kooth PLC
COVID-19 had a devastating impact on people’s mental health across the globe. Reduced social connections, job losses and insecurity as well as financial worries are just a few of the ways the pandemic negatively impacted our mental wellbeing. Mental health services that were already underfunded and overstretched are now needed more than ever. Increased adoption of digital health technology, such as apps and tele-therapy, can help ensure that people who are suffering from mental health conditions are able to access the support they need in a timely manner.
Provided by the NHS, Kooth plc offers safe spaces, available to all, for people to access personalised mental health support anonymously for free.
We have served as an early intervention and prevention service for mental health problems since 2004. Today, we are a thriving community where adults can receive peer to peer support via community forums, can have immediate access to free one to one counselling sessions with our trained and accredited therapists, and can read and contribute to self-help articles.
The Theory of Change (ToC) is a ground-breaking movement towards defining the effectiveness of online therapeutic safe spaces for adults. Through ToC, Kooth can start to articulate how we make a difference to individuals and to the system. It is a unique report that details the therapeutic journey of adults using Kooth and seeks to determine the most helpful mechanisms for change.
Kooth’s services work and make a real and positive difference in people, but as a new context delivering therapy, Kooth is investing to really understand how and why these services work and exactly what the true benefits are to Kooth service users. The ToC, developed in collaboration with New Philanthropy Capital, allows us to start answering these questions, so we can build a framework for our services that is evidence-based and collects the right information in relation to the change and difference that we are set to make in our users.
Tim Barker
CEO, Kooth Plc
Chief Executive Officer of New Philanthropy Capital (NPC)
New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) is a charity, a think tank and a consultancy whose mission is to help the whole social sector to create as much impact as possible. By doing this, we help the sector to have the maximum possible benefit for the people it serves. We believe passionately in the potential for data and evidence to help organisations understand the difference they are making and to improve their services. Good theories of change are a key component of this journey because they help organisations to: gain a clear understanding of what they are aiming for; think carefully about how they will achieve these aims; and set themselves up for effective evaluation. Since we published our first guide to theory of change in 2012, we have been really pleased with how much the approach has become an established method across the social sector.
Dan Corry
CEO, New Philanthropy Capital
Kooth has worked with some of the top academics and mental health researchers in the UK to provide an in-depth, robust framework for the Theory of Change.
Santiago de Ossorio-Garcia
James Noble
Aviva Gillman
Aaron Sefi
Dr Terry Hanley
Dr Julia Prescott
Sir Norman Lamb
Dan Corry
Dr Louise Green
Tim Barker
Dr Liz Fletcher
Dr Janet Grauberg
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These are singular and narrowly defined in nature. As a result, when used by mental health practitioners, we see brief, short-term insights around reduction of distress. The big picture is out of reach and therefore impossible to evaluate. A bit like reviewing a restaurant after only half a spoonful of dessert.
As a backdrop to this, the wider culture around assessment and diagnosis in the world of mental health is, in places, reductive, narrow and prescriptive; people are defined by symptoms and problems.
Kooth’s Research Team works on a number of projects to examine the real life impacts of online mental wellbeing support.
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