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The Blueprint Project

The Blueprint Project at the University of Manchester set out to uncover what high quality mental health services had in common.

Video transcript

Audio Visual
High quality mental health services are crucial for young people with common mental health problems. The scene opens up with one child and two young people in the frame, with a sketch of two pot plants on either side of them.The young lady is waving at the screen, while the child and the young boy are nodding, then a “common mental health problems” header appears on the screen later listing three of the common mental health problems – Depression, Anxiety, Self-harm, below the boy, young man and the young lady respectively.
But what does high quality truly mean? The Blueprint project aim to answer this question In the next scene, visuals pose the question of “what does high quality truly mean?” underpinned by captivating action mobile logos.
Involving young people with lived experience, we explored services to see how they measure up. We see a group of young people and children, with different backgrounds, sharing similar experiences and mental health issues.Some of them are waving at the viewers.
Our research began with a deep dive into international literature and existing services models, which revealed that the high quality services share common traits; Cards with different model names pass under a magnifying glass to represent their extensive research in the fields of : Services, documents, empirical papers, effectiveness papers, acceptability paper and broad model types.
such as accessibility, inter-agency working, use of consultation liaison, a service culture emphasising child’s centredness, user involvement and continuity of care. A check-list of common traits of high quality services appears with each trait being checked one by one.
With these key-insights in hand we zoomed in on nine services with the invaluable partnership of six young co-researchers. 9 rectangular box cards with either the service names or images of each service scroll in rows across the screen in opposite directions
At each of these services, we engage with children, young people, families and staff to find out what they value and to hear about their experiences.On this page, we see different groups appearing and interacting, first “children and young people”, then “families” and later on “staff” one by one moving to the left side of the screen.
At each of these services, we engaged with children, young people, families and staff to find out what they value and to hear about their experiences. We now see different groups appearing and interacting, first “children and young people”, then “families” and later on “staff” one by one moving to the left side of the screen.
Our finding shaped the model that defines the characteristics of high quality services for children and young people with common mental health problems. We are introduced to a graphic of the model that defines the key qualities of a skilled mental health promotion program.
These include: providing quick entry and timely access support, Visual of a hand holding listed document, titled “Waiting List” appears on the screen, with a footer of “rapid access and short waiting times”, while the other hand adorned with watch is displayed.
empowering children and young people with practical skills to support self-care, Various icons appear displaying “Opportunities to learn practical skills and strategies for self-care”. A boy learning communication skills, a girl practicing breathing techniques, all to manage emotions, social relationships, challenging unhelpful ways of thinking and improving self care techniques.
consideration of children and young people’s individual needs and interests and offering choice wherever possible, A boy thinking about an inclusive mental health space where each person’s individuality and uniqueness is recognised, various cards pop up around the child regarding appointment time, duration, the type of therapy and whether to include parents or not.
providing straightforward, specific, and accessible information and services through a variety of media, A girl showcasing various ways of clear and accessible information, through different platforms such as mobile or desktop.
staff that are not only well qualified and experienced but are also approachable and empathetic, Interaction between a young girl and a person offering help, empathetically, making her feel warm and comfortable.
well planned, seamless continuity for both entering and exiting services, including the transition to adult services. Now another staff member is carrying a document titled “What happens next?” approaches the same girl, guiding her smoothly into the adult care services after she exits children’s services, with a footer titled “Aftercare Services”
These core elements are underpinned by four characteristics: confidentiality, engagement, trust and a learning culture. Visuals showing four characteristics as 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively being “confidentiality”, “engagement”, “trust”, “learning culture” behind the said core elements.
Managing confidentiality in services and balancing autonomy and privacy with safeguarding needs is crucial for young people and families. A scale weighing machine appears on the screen that balances “privacy” and “safeguarding” of the children. On each weighing scale is a boy thinking about his privacy and safety, with a footer titled “values that respect confidentiality”.
Engagement means offering a choice of accessible, age appropriate therapies and Four cards- group work, peer support, talking therapies, digital support, pop up around the boy with a footer titled “engagement and involvement”.
empowering young people to contribute to decisions about their care and the design of services. Now an adult lady appears near the young boy, in a wheelchair, and seems to write off his opinions on different matters on a sheet of paper, with a footer titled “ engagement and involvement”
Trust and service provision relies on solid relationships between agencies, professionals, We see three people on the screen, the extreme left one is a lady around whom a “teacher” titled card appears, middle one is a girl who is called a “doctor” and the last one is a young man who is titled as a “CAMHS worker”. This visual is assisted by a footer that says “Collaborative Relationships”, and all three of the above are seen interacting with each other.
and between practitioners and families. The same footer from the previous scene continues, with the change of environment.Now we see a girl in a wheelchair being approached by three people, possibly a family, a man, a young girl and a woman, and the man is shaking hands with the girl in the wheelchair.
A learning culture that thrives on strong team dynamics and a reflective environment where service user feedback informs and staff has the freedom to be innovative. This scene describes “A learning culture”, a staff member approaching a young child interacting and providing her all the details, and also receiving feedback from her on a form that she is carrying in her hand.At last, a light bulb appears to the right of the staff’s head and it is electrified, moving to the next scene.
And what does this mean for services? A pop message is displayed on the screen saying “What does this mean for services?” with many question marks icons surrounding it.
It means implementing changes that don’t always require additional resources, The word “CHANGE” is displayed in bold letters with twinkling stars surrounding it.The letters appear one by one, and disappear similarly to the next screen.
but rather a re-imagining of how we approach mental health for children and young people. The boy and the girl appear on the right and left of the screen respectively, and we are introduced to a graphical flow that explained key qualities of high quality services for mental health program of youth and children.
It means ensuring that when a young person reaches out for help, the system is ready to respond with effective compassionate care and after care. A small hand reaches out and meets a big hand with confetti being sprinkled in the background, and “effective, compassionate care” and “after care” texts are displayed on the top left and bottom right corner of the page.
It’s about developing a learning culture, ensuring choice and making information easily accessible. The slide from previous scene gets minimized into the top left corner and three more visuals appear, dividing the screen into four parts and each part displaying visuals from the video’s previous captures of feedback, options and accessibility.
This is the future we envision, a future of effective mental health services for children and young people are not just available but meet the highest standards of care. The closing scene of the video contains all the characters that have been feature so far on the screen grouped together, the boy, girl, family ,staff and practitioners, all interacting and presenting joined community efforts and shining stars all over.
For more information on the blueprint project please visit our website, and follow us on social media. The outro scene displays the links for additional information about the project, their twitter handle on top, and an icon list of their endorsed partners is displayed in the middle of the slide.

At the bottom, project’s funding partners are named and video credits are displayed.

Blueprint was study funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) that explored services for children and young people with common mental health problems like depression, anxiety and self-harm.

The study aimed to find out what services exist. how children/young people and families find out about and access these services, what the services actually do, and whether they are helpful.

For an upcoming webinar they required an accessible, jargon free animated summary of the research, outcomes and the subsequent model that was established defining the characteristics of high quality services.

With a plain and off-white background, the text “What does high quality mean?“ is written in bold letters with question mark signs all around, on the left side is a rectangule containing various coloured upward arrows.
The words: “Common mental health problems” a displayed in a box at the top of the scene. Three people, a boy, a teenage boy and a teenage girl are in the middle. The girls is waving at the viewer. Two plants at either side of the frame, and three expressions “Depression”, “Anxiety”, “Self-harm” appearing below the characters.
A hand holds a piece of paper with a checklist of “High quality services”. On the checklist is “Accessibility”, “Interagency working”, “Consultation liaison”, “Child-centeredness”, “User involvement” and "Continuity of care”. The other hand holds a pen and the first three attributes have been checked off.
The word “CHANGE” is displayed in bold and capitals on the centre of the scene, with colourful stars twinkling all around it.
We see three different groups of people. The first one is of a young boy and a girl with a footer saying “Children and young people”, the second one consists of an adult man, a young girl, and an adult woman, with a “families” title below them, and the last one is a single man wearing an identity card, titled “staff”.
Three people, a “teacher”, “doctor”, and a “CAMHS (Children and Adult Mental Health Services) worker” are in the centre of the screen interacting with each other. A footer below them says “Collaborative relationships”.
Two values, “Privacy” and “Safeguarding”, on a weighing scale, with both containers carrying a young boy. The footer says “Values that respect confidentiality” and the visual is a metaphor for weighing up privacy with safeguarding.
The header says “Core elements”, below which are numbers “1 2 3 4” each in different colour, all in the centre of the page. The footer says “Underpinning characteristics”. This scene is representative of the core elements and underpinning characteristics of the model of high quality mental health services for children and young people as developed by the Blueprint research project.
The header reads “Core elements” again, and again the footer reads “underpinning characteristics”. This time the numbers in the middle have been replaced with the words: “Confidentiality”, “Engagement”, “Trust”, “A learning culture”. These are the underpinning characteristic of high quality mental health services for children and young people as identified by the Blueprint model.
A young person’s hand reaching towards an adult’s hand, with stars twinkling all around
We see 6 colourful rectangular cards in 2 rows of three. They are listing the International research that was carried out during the early stages of the project: 342 services, 300+ documents, 98 empirical papers, 56 effectiveness papers, 62 acceptability papers and 7 broad model types. A magnifying glass hovering over the second card, representing the practice of research.
A large group of people, diverse in age, ethnicity, gender and profession, are displayed. There are colorful stars twinkling all over in their surroundings.

Storyboard

Screen shot of some of the scenes, voiceover and action notes from the Blueprint Project storyboard created using Boords app.

Screen shot of the Blueprint Project storyboard in Boords app.

We commissioned Love & Logic to help us share our research findings on children and young people's mental health services in an engaging and accessible format. We are absolutely delighted with the animation and it has been a pleasure to work with Angela from start to finish.

Claire Fraser, University of Manchester See review on Google