Addressing the Psychological Needs of Adolescents During the Wait Time for Mental Health Treatment: Service Design...

Adolescents waiting for mental health treatment often experience significant unmet psychological needs, including severe psychological distress, increased use of maladaptive coping strategies, and feelings of abandonment. However, current wait time support offerings across the mental health sector are sparse and lack clear evidence of effectiveness.

Using design thinking, this early report describes the development of a service blueprint for a new model of care (While We Wait) designed to address the psychological needs of adolescents during the wait time for mental health treatment in Australia through targeted support from general practitioners (GPs) and brief, self-directed digital interventions.

In partnership with health service designers from Deloitte Digital Australia, we conducted a rapid 6-week health service design sprint. This industry-led methodology involved iterative weekly activities, including the development of service user personas and service experience principles, consultation sessions with 12 youth with lived experience experts (aged 18 to 20 years) and 15 GPs, insight synthesis, and service blueprint development.

The design sprint produced a service blueprint anchored in 5 service experience principles: "I'm never alone," "It's for me," "I'm in control," "It's easy to use," and "It lifts me up." The proposed service model incorporated a five-stage service journey: (1) recognition (the adolescent acknowledges the need for support), (2) initial consultation and onboarding with the GP, (3) support and monitoring, (4) preparation for treatment, and (5) transition to specialist care and follow-up. Key adolescent service outcomes included uptake, acceptability, self-advocacy, mental health and well-being, perceived quality of care, and help seeking intentions and behaviors. For GPs, outcomes included uptake, feasibility, acceptability, and confidence in supporting adolescents during the wait time.

This work demonstrates that a rapid, industry-led design thinking approach may help identify priorities for developing services that address adolescents' needs during the wait time for mental health treatment. The project also highlights the value of co-designing mental health services with lived experience experts and service providers. Together, these findings suggest that the wait time may represent an important opportunity for early therapeutic engagement rather than a passive delay before treatment.