"Fresh" was created by a group of young people going through the CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) process with Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust.
"Alder Hey CAMHS is part of the wider Liverpool CAMHS Partnership. We offer specialist services to support children and young people in Liverpool and Sefton, up to the age of 18, who are experiencing mental health difficulties. We also provide support to their families or carers."
Building on the positive foundation provided by CAMHS, Fresh wanted to go even further, tackling the stigma that surrounds mental health with their own sub-brand, in their own way.
This meant some adventurous ideas from the passionate and energetic bunch. Their heads screwed on, they knew they needed to use the potential of online technologies and interactive games to help spread the word, raise awareness and help those facing their own mental health difficulties.
Alder Hey
Kicking off the project with the Alder Hey team – a web and digital project manager and a clinical psychologist – we outlined the potential of the project, what was needed and what the young people of Fresh were like.
CAMHS Meeting
We were lucky to attend one of the weekly CAMHS meetings, involving the group of teens – between the ages of 14 and 18 – and their adult support workers. They had been through a range of distressing and sensitive situations and gave us a great insight into their struggles, their stories and their journey.
Here we discussed the range of emotions experienced when lonely, anxious, angry and depressed. We also suggested possible methods of coping with, distracting or challenging these feelings. It was this constructive process that we wanted to replicate on the website.
Games!
Once the subject of games came up the energy was infectious! Whilst we couldn't promise to deliver every adventurous idea, the group very talkative and creative. We were left in a great place to start planning, designing and building the website and interactive elements.
Tate Workshop
After a couple of weeks of research and tinkering, we met the gang at the Tate art gallery to tell them about our progress. They were towards the end of an afternoon of filming videos and planning animations.
We took them through way visitors will land on the site and be asked about their mood. We went through each game and discussed the various ways these will help to improve mood. The frog mascot was asked to be featured as much as possible!
The Finished Site
Fresh was launched after some hard work, a big UX focus and some great contributions from the Alder Hey team.
The home page clearly and colourfully asks the simple question "how you feelin'?" based on the group's hashtag promotion:
"Splat Your Distressing Thoughts"
Each game and interactive element provides a unique and constructive way of addressing a large variety of negative thoughts and feelings:
See the site in action: freshcamhs.org