University partners with YouTube Health to improve quality of mental health information

University College London (UCL) has teamed up with YouTube Health to train 100 mental health experts to train them in creating video content for YouTube.

The aim of the collaboration is to improve the quality of mental health information on the platform. Many young people turn to YouTube for advice about mental health, and UCL believes that it is important that the content they see is accurate and evidence-based.

The partnership was launched with an event that brought together UCL mental health experts and YouTube Health – a part of the YouTube business that focuses on highlighting content from authoritative channels in search results so that users can identify credible sources when searching for health topics.

UCL hopes to develop a clinical creators network, a group of academics who can share their expertise in mental health on the platform to make sure that the latest research findings are accessible to the young people searching for information online.

Dr Jenny Shand, an associate professor at UCL who organised the event, said: “Last year, YouTube saw 950 million views on mental health condition videos in the UK. This staggering figure underscores the high demand for mental health content.

“YouTube offers accessibility to underserved communities who might not otherwise seek help and this, paired with our UCL academics’ decades of expertise and cutting-edge mental health research, holds a lot of potential.”

As well as training clinical academics, UCL intends to work with YouTube Health to co-create teaching materials explaining to students how to create YouTube content. These would be embedded in UCL course curricula to equip the next generation of clinical creators.

Content needs to be accessible and expert-led

As the demand for mental health services continues to rise, accessible, expert-led content will be an effective way to provide those in need with informative and accurate advice, UCL believes.

Speaking at the panel discussion at the launch, Professor Peter Fonagy, head of the UCL division of psychology and language sciences, said: “This initiative presents a huge opportunity. Not just for the thousands of children and young people desperately searching for high-quality mental health information, but also potentially for specialist mental health services.

“We see the enormous and accumulating wait list pressure that these teams are put under, so I believe that there is real potential here to educate and inform young people and parents and elevate some of that pressure.”

Dr Garth Graham, the global head of healthcare and public health at Google/YouTube, said: “YouTube Health is extremely proud to be partnering with UCL to support academic experts in making evidence-based mental health information and research videos accessible to the entire UK population and beyond. This is a vital initiative in our ongoing efforts to support youth mental wellbeing in particular on YouTube.”