The case for early intervention in youth mental health

By Kate Newhouse, CEO, Kooth Digital Health

Prevention-based care and early intervention are recognised best practices across health systems.

Screening for breast cancer improves survival rates by detecting tumours at an earlier stage; routine childhood immunisations help prevent serious illness; and blood pressure checks help identify risk before cardiovascular issues progress. Investing in national public health campaigns and preventative services can improve health outcomes and materially reduce healthcare costs.

Kooth's 25-year track record in the UK — where earlier digital mental health support has demonstrably reduced pressure on NHS emergency services — shows this same logic applies to mental health.²

Public health has demonstrated that systems deliver greater value in lives saved and cost reductions when they are designed around prevention and early interventions. The prevention paradox is that, when this work successfully happens, the impact can appear invisible: the worst outcome does not occur, a crisis is averted, an emergency room visit is avoided, and suffering is reduced.

The absence of a crisis is not the absence of impact; it is the result of timely intervention changing the trajectory of a person's life before a higher-acuity system is forced to respond.

Yet the wait-to-fail model is still how youth mental health works. Support becomes available after distress has escalated, after a young person fails in school or withdraws from their community, after families are in crisis or when emergency response systems must act.

Youth mental health has the same potential to benefit from earlier intervention on a population-level scale but only if we move away from the wait-to-fail system designed around responding to crisis to one designed around prevention and earlier intervention.

That is the gap Soluna was designed to help address — rooted in Kooth's 25-year history of delivering digital mental health support at population scale in the UK, and now bringing that clinical foundation to the United States.

Soluna is Kooth's flagship digital mental health platform in the United States and part of a first-in-the-nation model to make no-cost digital mental health support available to all young people. From their phone or computer, young people can access one-on-one professional support, moderated peer spaces, evidence-based tools and content, and a care navigation team that connects users to local resources when additional support is needed.

The larger question behind Soluna is one facing our entire field: how do we build an early-intervention model that reaches people at population-level scale, expands access for those who may otherwise go without care, earns trust, and leads to measurable outcomes?

A growing body of research, including new independent findings from Northwestern University's Lab for Scalable Mental Health, is helping answer these questions.

Reach and access: building earlier pathways to support

The first test of any early intervention model is whether it reaches the people who need care, including those who may otherwise go without it.

Research showed that in its first year of implementation in California in 2024, Soluna reached young people across all 58 counties, expanding access for those who might otherwise go without care, including young people in rural communities, under-resourced areas, and places where support may be difficult to find, afford, or access.³

Key findings include:³

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  One-in-two users reported they would not have access to mental health services without Soluna.

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  53% of Soluna users identify as members of Black, Indigenous, or other Communities of Color — communities that often face systemic barriers to care.

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  57% of users live in areas identified as underresourced by the Healthy Places Index, reaching young people in communities facing the greatest barriers to care.

One 18-year-old Soluna user described it this way: "Soluna gives me a space to talk and write about what I'm struggling with when I lack a support system otherwise. I feel like the team really makes an effort to show they care and sometimes all I need is to know someone does care."

Earning trust: support that fits young people's lives

Reach is the first step, but it only matters if young people trust the support being offered, find value in the experience, and return when they need help.

Soluna user feedback shows:³

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  95% of users said they would recommend Soluna to a friend.

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  87% said Soluna has helped them get the mental health support they wanted.

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  Since using Soluna, 86% of users have learned they aren't alone in what they're experiencing or how they feel.

That trust is also reflected in how educators and youth-serving professionals are experiencing Soluna in their communities.

Peer-reviewed implementation research published in JMIR Formative Research found strong support from schools and community partners who work with youth and young adults:⁴

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  95% said they would recommend Soluna to other schools or organisations for students or youth.

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  89% reported improvements in youth concentration in school.

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  87% said that digital mental health apps help improve access to support.

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  83% reported confidence that Soluna benefits staff in supporting student or youth mental wellbeing.

Clinical outcomes: measuring the impact of early support

The final question is whether early intervention leads to measurable improvements in young people's mental health.

An evaluation led by Dr. Jessica Schleider, Director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health at Northwestern University, examined Soluna's impact among young people using the platform. The study recruited Soluna users through in-platform outreach and surveyed participants at baseline, one month, and three months, with psychological distress and functioning as the primary outcomes.³

The key findings include:³

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  After engaging with Soluna, young people showed significant reductions in psychological distress at one month.

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  The study found that reductions in distress were consistent across the Soluna users taking part in the study, regardless of their background or identity or platform behaviour, demonstrating that the personalised design enables an effective universal and population-wide service.

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  Soluna users surveyed also showed significant reductions in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, loneliness, and suicidal ideation, as well as increases in quality of life related to both mental health and physical health at one month.

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  These improvements did not fade once young people stopped actively engaging — the reductions in distress, anxiety, and hopelessness measured at one month were sustained at three months.

As Dr. Schleider said: "It will take a full ecosystem of supports to meet the scale of youth mental health need. Digital tools like Soluna are not a replacement for traditional care, but they are an essential part of the system. In this study, many young people experienced meaningful and sustained reductions in distress. That tells us scalable, accessible support can make a real difference. If we are serious about improving youth mental health at the population level, solutions like this have to be part of the strategy."

Building a system that reaches young people earlier

The evidence base — including the Northwestern University evaluation, peer-reviewed research, platform data, and user surveys — shows a clear throughline: Soluna is reaching young people at scale, expanding access for those who may otherwise go without support, earning trust from young people and the adults around them, and contributing to measurable improvements in mental health.

In other areas of health, there is investment in prevention and early intervention because we understand the value is both individual and systemic. Screenings can identify cancer sooner, blood pressure checks can reduce the risk of more serious disease, and public health efforts like anti-smoking campaigns show how prevention can help reduce illness before it starts, saving lives and reducing long-term costs for individuals and across the system.

Mental health should be held to the same standard. When support is easier to access sooner, it can change the trajectory for a young person before distress becomes harder to manage, while also easing pressure on families, schools, clinicians, and emergency services.

Three in four lifelong mental health conditions first emerge by the age of 24,⁵ making early intervention not just a better experience for young people but a defining window of opportunity. Building a health system that reaches young people before crisis — rather than waiting for crisis to become the point of entry — is how we protect not just their adolescence, but the decades that follow. When young people get the right support at the right time, the benefits extend beyond the individual: stronger families, more resilient communities, and economies where more people can fully participate.

References

1. 1.

   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tips From Former Smokers: Campaign Impact Results.

2. 2.

   Kooth Digital Health. Research-Driven Impact.

3. 3.

   Kooth Digital Health. New Northwestern Study Finds Young People Using Soluna Experience Reductions in Psychological Distress and Improvements in Wellbeing. GlobeNewswire, 30 April 2026.

4. 4.

   Kooth Digital Health. California Education and Health Leaders Call on Schools to Integrate Soluna Into Student Mental Health Services. GlobeNewswire, 24 March 2026. Citing peer-reviewed findings published in JMIR Formative Research.

5. 5.

   National Alliance on Mental Illness. Mental Health by the Numbers.