Kooth commissioned the York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) to provide an analysis of its web-based mental health platform for children and young people (CYP) in the UK.
As part of the analysis, YHEC built a cost calculator to estimate the cost differences to the U.K. government when Kooth is available as an open-source mental health platform.
A decision tree structure was used to track the progress of CYP with emerging mental health needs (EMHN), comparing mental health outcomes between those with and without access to the Kooth platform.
The immediate mental health outcomes analyzed were (1) Suicidal ideation, (2) Self-harm and (3) Perceived impact of difficulties. These direct mental health outcomes were then linked to a set of economic outcomes and their associated one-year cost to UK government services. These were: Hospitalisations due to self-harm, crime, smoking, binge drinking, increases in key stage 3 and 4 (KS3, KS4) educational attainment, reduction in GP appointments and a reduction in the use of antidepressants.
The UK model followed a cohort of 2,160 children and young people with mental health needs. Based on that population and the model’s assumptions, there was an estimated total cost savings of £443,234, less the cost of the Kooth service.
The impacts were driven by avoidance of:
- •
19 individuals avoided hospitalisation due to suicidal ideation or self-harm
- •
3 individuals avoided being arrested for committing a crime
- •
40 individuals not practicing smoking
- •
28 individuals not practicing in binge drinking
- •
35 additional individuals were estimated to attain at KS3 level (12-14 years old)
- •
60 additional individuals were estimated to attain at KS4 level (14-16 years old)