Your mental health matters. One way to check in on how your mental health and wellbeing is doing, is through using measurement tools such as questionnaires. Some measure outcomes (how you are doing and progressing), and others collect feedback about your experiences of services
Collecting outcomes about young people’s mental health and wellbeing means that you, and the organisations that support you, can see changes in how you are feeling, your health, and where different support might be needed. CORC works with organisations such as schools and providers of mental health support to collect and improve the quality of this data, so that they can respond to your needs more effectively.
At CORC, we believe your voice must be central to any support you receive. You have the right to influence and shape support for your mental health, including using outcomes measures.
If you are looking mental health support, visit the Anna Freud On My Mind mental health and wellbeing platform.
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What are outcome measures?
Outcome measures are ways to measure or record changes to your mental health and wellbeing. They are used to try and understand the impact of the treatment or support that you are receiving. They are usually in the form of a questionnaire and can be filled in by either you, your parents or carers, practitioners, or your teachers.
Feedback measures are usually questionnaires which ask about your experience of the service or session you are attending.
The short animation below explains what an outcome measure is and how it might be used in children and young people’s mental health services.
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Why do services use outcome measures?
There are lots of reasons why services use outcomes measures.
- Young people often tell us that outcome and feedback measures can open up conversations.
- It can be helpful to look back and compare how you’re doing now to how you were doing previously, and to identify where you are making change and where you need more support.
- Practitioners can use measures as another piece of information to build a picture of what’s going on for a young person and how best to support you.
- Services can use the data from all the people they work with to understand the difference that their support is making, and help them identify how to improve.
In this video, mental health practitioners talk about some of the reasons they find measures useful:
Watch from 0:39 to 2:02
And in this video, young person Amy explains how measures can be useful for young people:
Watch from 4:32 to 5:16
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Is there evidence that outcome measures do help young people?
There is research which points to outcome measures as a useful way to show change and progress. CORC's Co-Research lead Jenna Jacob shares two different blogs about this:
Outcome monitoring research:
CORC has also been involved in research which shows the importance of setting goals as part of receiving support from a therapist.
Collaborative goal setting:
However, outcomes measures are only helpful if they are used in the right way. This video explains how practitioners can best use outcome measures with young people:
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What is a “good” outcome?
"Good” can mean different things to different people, including your parents and carers, teachers, and people who support you. But the most important thing is what progress or “good” outcomes mean to you.
In the blog below Karolin Krause writes about a workshop which explores this question and the different areas of discussion it opens up for us.
In this video, Consultant Clinical Psychologist Roslyn Law explores what progress means in the context of mental health, and goals and outcomes measures can help show this, and what to do if you feel like you aren’t making progress:
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What is it like to complete outcome measures?
Everyone has different experiences of completing outcome measures. Outcome measures are there to help you and the people who support you to work out the best next steps for you. You have the right to be honest with your practitioner about your experiences and to talk about how you would like to see change.
In these videos, young people from Anna Freud talk about their experiences of completing outcome measures, including what makes a good outcome and how they would measure it:
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How can services use measures well?
A questionnaire is only as useful as the way in which it is used. It’s important that practitioners are transparent with you about why they are using measures, and how they will use the information you share with them. Even if the feedback won’t be used in sessions and will only be used to improve the service, we find that young people are happy to give honest feedback to try and help the service for other young people like them in the future, but this needs to be transparent.
It’s okay to ask your practitioner about anything that isn’t clear to you.
Watch from 7.45 minutes.
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My voice and outcome measures
My right to influence services
You have the right to express your views about the support you receive for your mental health. This right is protected by law, and in Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. You have the right to share your views in a way that suits you, for these to be properly listened to and considered in decision making.
The Lundy model of participation
At CORC and Anna Freud, we follow the Lundy model of participation. This framework helps ensure that you are given the opportunity to express your voice in a safe and accessible space, that the right audience with the ability to make change hears you, and that your views influence the services and support you receive.
Learn more about the Lundy model in this short film:
More details about how CORC uses this model can be found in our participation strategy:
At CORC, we always try to work with young people in a way that upholds these rights. Anyone who supports your mental health (at school, CAMHS or anywhere else) needs to be upholding your right to express your views too.
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How CORC involves young people in our work
At CORC, we aim to include children and young people in all our work. Here are some examples of research and evaluations we have co-produced with young people.
If you want to see more about our work with young people, you can also follow our news and blogs on our website here:
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How can I get involved?
We are always looking for people to help us by sharing their opinions, experiences, and ideas - either through participating in our research and surveys, helping shape our resources or taking part in our events.
If you would like to be involved on a regular basis, you could join our CORC advisory board. Please email corc@annafreud.org if you would like to learn more.
There are also lots of opportunities to influence the work of Anna Freud more broadly:
We also share updates about any projects or opportunities you could get involved in via our newsletter, or on X/Twitter.