At the heart of our service are Kooth and Qwell, our digital platforms. However the positive impact starts much earlier, and extends much wider.
How Kooth works
Kooth’s easy- access support is critical to thousands of people, reducing the demand and cost of acute mental health care while helping to build a mentally healthier, happier and more productive society.
A shift to prevention
There is a growing public health crisis in mental health in the UK:
One-in-five children and young people have a probable mental health disorder, up from one-in-nine in 2017
Referrals to NHS Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), designed to support those with the most severe mental health needs, have risen by 53%
Average waiting times to receive care is over six times the four week target, with some waiting two years
Kooth is at the forefront of a vital shift in health systems, which will see a far greater focus on prevention.
Designed for population health
The ripple effect
Health economics recognises that the health of people across an entire population has a direct impact on our overall wealth and happiness.
We often see the positive 'ripple out' effects of Kooth support, such as:
The individual who goes on to find better relationships with family and friends
The student who is able to engage with school, positively impacting teachers and classmates - as well as increasing their future life chances
The parent who feels able to return to work, finding a sense of pride and recovered self-esteem
Towards health economic outcomes
Kooth’s ‘ripple out’ effect has been researched in a recent paper by the York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC). It identified positive impacts not just on healthcare, but on costs to the wider system.
Kooth is therefore key to effective joined up strategies for tackling some of society’s fundamental issues, such as:
Suicide and self-harm
Low workforce participation
Low school attendance
Health inequalities
Building brain capital
In October 2024, Kooth hosted the Brain Capital UK Summit, where leaders from education, tech, finance, and mental health came together to explore how brain capital can drive future productivity, wellbeing and economic growth.
The event was a powerful reminder of the collective effort needed to make mental health a priority; we look forward to helping to shape the vision for a UK brain capital strategy.