A youth-informed approach to mental health service websites: 'so people can actually connect'

There are well-recognized barriers that prevent young people from accessing timely mental health support and there is an opportunity to promote their engagement with professional support through websites associated with a mental health service. This Aotearoa, New Zealand-based study aimed to identify the elements of a website that young people believed would improve engagement with the service. A co-design method enlisted young people's expertise in making recommendations for mental health service websites. Sixty-seven young people, aged 16-24 years, took part in one of six participatory workshops. The data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Recommendations were for the inclusion of information that validated young people's help-seeking; showed them exactly what it would be like to use the service; helped them to make informed choices about the support they wanted, and told them what steps they needed to take to get access to the service. Recommendations also included the use of personal stories from other young people illustrating the value of using the service, and for information to be conveyed in a tone that was authentic, respectful, and nonjudgemental. Young people also wanted good functionality from a website and preferred video and other visual modes of presentation. This research offers clear recommendations for websites aimed at improving youth engagement with professional mental health support. A youth-informed approach to website design has the potential to overcome some of the barriers that prevent this population from reaching out for help.