A team of researchers, led by the University of Glasgow, will trial a new approach to children’s mental health services in the UK aimed at providing better care for young people in need.
The new five-year project, It Takes a Village, is funded with £4.5m from the NIHR and is the first of its kind in the UK. The study is unique in trialling a community expert-based task-sharing approach to child mental health provision, and will be guided by key groups, including clinical experts and young people with experience of mental health problems.
It Takes a Village has been developed in response to the increasing challenges in children’s mental health services, and the study represents the first time Scotland has received a programme grant from NIHR in mental health.
Currently, across the UK children’s mental health services are overstretched, with too few staff and long waiting lists. As a result, some children can wait years before being seen, with deaths from suicide in children and young people also increasing.
It Takes a Village is inspired by mental health services in countries such as India and Uganda, where members of the community are trained and supported by expert clinicians to provide child mental health assessments and treatments. The model has proven to work in these countries, with children and young people able to access mental health support in a timely way.
The research project will work with community and clinical stakeholders to co-produce a similar approach, targeting common mental health problems – early-stage anxiety, depression and behaviour problems – in children and young people ages 11 to 18 years-old, an age range when mental health problems are often first identified or become unmanageable.
Professor Helen Minnis, project co-lead and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Glasgow, said: “Prevention, early identification and appropriate intervention opportunities are key to properly treating mental health issues in children and young people. However, currently child and adolescent mental health services are struggling, with very long waiting lists and vulnerable children going long periods before being seen.
“The concept of It Take a Village is rooted in better understanding the problems around child mental health, as well as trialling a new way to broaden out the scope of support available using trained and trusted community members.”
Dr Ruchika Gajwani, project co-lead, Clinical Psychologist and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow said: “We believe, based on the evidence from countries such as India, where this kind of model is proven to work in practice, that taking a different more community-based approach to children’s mental health provision may be key to addressing some of the biggest challenges facing young people and society more generally.”
It Takes a Village (ITAV) will have a launch conference on the 10th of November 2026 in Glasgow, with keynote speakers including Professor Vikram Patel, chair of global mental health, Harvard University and Professor Prathiba Chitsabesan,National Clinical Director for Children and Young People’s Mental Health (NHS England).