Youth mental health

In the UK, young people have to wait around ten years between experiencing their first symptoms of mental health issues and receiving help. 

Early intervention could prevent decades of illness, supporting a satisfying and productive life. Our goal is to work together to investigate and address the big issues that young people want answers to. Find out how you can help by visiting Birmingham In Mind or emailing giving@contacts.bham.ac.uk, or learn about our work on bullying below. 

Getting in early: preventing bullying

The University of Birmingham, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and HSBC UK have joined forces to take action on childhood bullying, a preventable root cause of mental ill health.

The partners aim to investigate the scale of bullying in schools across the city and pilot an internationally-recognised intervention programme that reduces bullying. This aims to prevent the onset of mental ill health and improve educational, employment and health outcomes.

Thanks to the generous support and vision of HSBC UK as the founding donor, the partnership will see the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Children’s Hospital explore the relationship between predictors and incidents of bullying in Birmingham.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Children’s Hospital will also go on to trial an innovative intervention scheme – the KiVa programme.

KiVa is an evidence-based school programme that has been successful in Finland, the Netherlands and Italy but has never-before been trialled in England. The approach equips children and young people with the tools to support each other, shifting the focus away from the bullying behaviour and giving them the skills to change the experience.