Transforming mental health care across England with the Mental Health Implementation Network

The Network is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and led by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London at King’s College London and King’s College Hospital, in close collaboration with NIHR ARC East of England and 13 other ARCs around the UK. Our focus is on studying how well mental health interventions work in real-life settings, and getting those that work put into practice in health services.

Last year, the Network hosted a three-part webinar series to showcase the significant progress we have made in getting new evidence-based mental health interventions into health services across the UK.

We were delighted to host speakers from 24 organisations across the UK and 396 attendees, 95% of which found the webinars informative while 91% deemed them relevant to their work.

The webinar series shared interventions in three critical areas of mental health, which were prioritised through a series of scoping and priority-setting activities.

• Webinar 1: Children and Young People's Mental Health (13 March 2024) – Explored Parent-Led Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), which equips parents with CBT tools to support their children's mental wellbeing. Read a summary here and watch the webinar recording here.
• Webinar 2: Integrated Care for Substance Use and Mental Health (18 March 2024) – Discussed the Alcohol Assertive Outreach Treatment (AAOT) programme which addresses the complex interplay between substance use, mental health and physical health issues. Read a summary here and watch the webinar recording here.
• Webinar 3: Improving Access for Minority Ethnic Communities (25 March 2024) – Highlighted the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF), which aims to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of mental health services for minority ethnic groups. Read a summary here and watch the webinar recording here.

Key themes: collaboration, inclusion, impact

Some of the key themes that emerged from the webinar series were:

Collaboration across sectors

The webinars emphasised the value of partnerships with local stakeholders. By working closely with service users, health authorities, charities, networks and service providers, all three projects within the Network has have ensured diverse perspectives and expertise. This collaboration helped identify challenges and opportunities for implementing the mental health interventions successfully.

Tailoring solutions to local needs

The webinars highlighted the importance of being flexible when implementing interventions. Speakers shared creative ways of embedding new interventions into established services, ensuring they are relevant and fit the unique needs of local populations.

Valuing lived experience

Experts by experience and community organisations played a central role in implementing all three interventions. By engaging the experts by experience in advisory panels and project groups, and working closely with community researchers, the local teams were able to tailor the interventions to the communities they served.

Sustainability and scale

A key commitment of the Network is to create long-term impact in mental health care. The webinars explored the challenges in creating sustainable interventions that can be expanded, and highlighted enthusiasm among partner sites to continue to scale-up effective interventions.

Equity, inclusion and community engagement

A recurring theme across the webinars was the need for equity and inclusion in mental health services. The three projects focused on using research methods and developing interventions that prioritise equity, co-production accessibility and inclusion. This involved engaging communities in designing, implementing and evaluating services and interventions to ensure they meet local needs and preferences.

Data-driven approaches

The speakers emphasised the importance of using the latest data to inform clinical practice, identify gaps in care and measure impact. With ongoing evaluation and adaptations, the Network ensured the interventions remained effective and relevant.

What’s next?

The Mental Health Implementation Network demonstrates how collaboration, innovation, and inclusivity can transform mental health care. We are committed to sustaining this impact with continuous evaluations, active stakeholder engagement and potential expansions of evidence-based interventions.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to announce our 2025 webinar series, where we’ll be sharing best practices to inform wider implementation efforts in mental health care. Save the date for our webinar on Alcohol Assertive Outreach Treatment: Wednesday 26 February, 14:00 - 17:00. We hope to see you there!

Stakeholder organisations

The Network is part of the Centre for Mental Health Policy and Evaluation at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London. We would like to thank all of our stakeholder organisations and contributors to the webinars from NIHR ARCs (Yorkshire & Humber, North West Coast, East of England, and Kent, Surrey & Sussex), academic institutions (King’s College London, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, University of Manchester, University of Sheffield, University of Hull and the University of Central Lancashire), the NHS Foundations Trusts and other local health authorities (Greater Manchester Mental Health, Northern Care Alliance, Norfolk and Suffolk, South London and Maudsley, NHS England and NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care), networks and federation (MHIN North West Coast, Health Innovation Network East of England, MHIN East of England and Nebula Federation), and community organisations (Lingua GM, Big Life Group, ReNew & Change Grow Live).