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Category: Research

Using data to support young people’s mental health: Introducing the HRB-funded PROACT project

Posted on by Ian Carey

Every day across Ireland, young people reach out for help with their mental health.

Services like Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, work to ensure that support is available when it is needed. But as demand continues to grow, services face an important challenge: making sure the right support reaches the right young person at the right time.

A new research project hopes to help with exactly that.

PROACT (Predictive Analytics for Optimised Care in Youth Mental Health) is a partnership between University of Limerick and Jigsaw, funded by the Health Research Board. The project will explore how modern data analysis can help youth mental health services better understand young people’s needs, plan services more effectively, and personalise the support they provide.

Put simply, PROACT is about learning from the information services already collect so that mental health supports can work better for young people.

Why this research matters

Across Ireland and around the world, more young people are seeking help for their mental health. Meeting this need requires services like Jigsaw to keep evolving, not only in how we deliver care, but in how we understand and anticipate it.

PROACT is the first study of its kind in Ireland to examine how advanced analytics can be used within youth mental health services to generate actionable real time insight from real-world service data.

By identifying patterns that are often difficult to detect in day-to-day practice, the project will explore how services can better anticipate demand, understand what works for different young people, and intervene earlier where there is a risk of disengagement.

The ambition is clear – we want to equip clinicians in Jigsaw with better intelligence so that young people can receive more safer, responsive and personalised support.

What the PROACT project will do

The research will focus on five main areas.

Predicting needs and demand

The project will explore how advanced data analysis techniques, including machine learning, can help predict mental health outcomes and identify patterns in how services are used. This could help services anticipate changes in demand, plan staffing more effectively, and respond more quickly when more young people need support.

Understanding young people’s needs

Researchers will analyse anonymised data to build a clearer picture of the needs of young people who access services. This includes looking at how young people find their way to mental health support and how they move through services. Understanding these pathways can help identify gaps in care and groups of young people who may need additional support.

Personalising support

Every young person’s experience of mental health is different. The project will examine how data can help tailor supports to individual needs. Over time, this could help clinicians understand which approaches are most likely to work for particular young people.

Testing tools for clinicians

The research will also explore how data insights could support clinicians in their day-to-day work. In one part of the project, clinicians will test a prototype decision-support tool that uses data insights to help guide personalised care. Their feedback will be essential to make sure any future tools are practical, useful, and aligned with clinical judgement.

Turning research into real-world impact

The final stage of the project will focus on sharing the findings with practitioners, policymakers, and services. The goal is to ensure that what is learned through the research can help improve youth mental health support across Ireland.

Dr Jeff Moore, Director of Research at Jigsaw said:

“At Jigsaw, we have made major investments in implementing a world-class electronic health record system because we believe better data  leads to safe and more effective mental health care. PROACT allows us to combine that asset with world-class academic and clinical expertise to apply innovative analytic methods in a way that is grounded in real service need. This is about turning data into intelligence that supports clinicians, informs better decisions and helps deliver safer, personalised and effective care for young people.”

Protecting young people’s privacy

Protecting the privacy of young people is central to this project. All of the data used in the research will be fully anonymised. This means individual young people cannot be identified.

The aim is not to monitor individuals. Instead, the research looks at patterns across many cases so services can learn and improve over time.

A collaboration across disciplines

PROACT brings together people with expertise in mental health research, clinical practice, artificial intelligence, policy, and lived experience.

The research team includes Dr Ruth Melia, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at University of Limerick, Dr Jeff Moore, Director of Research at Jigsaw – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health, and Professor Pepijn Van de Ven, Professor of AI and Machine Learning at University of Limerick.

They are joined by Derek Chambers General Manager (Policy Implementation) at the National Mental Health Office, in HSE Access & Integration team along with youth advocates Jack Kirby and Eva Lenihan, who help ensure the voices and perspectives of young people remain central to the work.

Looking ahead

The long-term vision of the PROACT project is straightforward. It is about helping youth mental health services provide the right support the first time a young person seeks help.

By learning from data in a responsible way, the research aims to help services anticipate demand, reduce waiting times, identify young people who may need additional support, and plan services more effectively.

Ultimately, the goal is simple. When a young person reaches out for help, they should receive the support they need as quickly and effectively as possible.

Who’s Turning to Jigsaw? What Five Years of Data Tells Us About Youth Mental Health Support

Posted on by Ian Carey

Dr Jeff Moore, Director of Research Jigsaw

Data, Decisions, and the Bigger Picture 

Data tells stories. In healthcare, it helps us see patterns, understand trends, and figure out what’s working—and what needs to change. When it comes to youth mental health, this is more important than ever. 

Every young person who reaches out for support has their own unique story, and those individual experiences matter. At the same time, data allows us to step back and see the bigger picture—helping us understand who is accessing support, where gaps exist, and how we can improve services to meet growing demand. 

Young people today are facing huge challenges, and we know that most mental health difficulties start before the age of 25. That’s why early support is critical. But are young people getting the help they need? Who is reaching out for support? And once they do, what keeps them engaged—or causes them to drop out? 

Since 2006, Jigsaw has been offering free, accessible mental health support to 12- to 25-year-olds in Ireland. To get a clearer picture of how the service is being used, we dived into five years of data (2017-2022). Here’s what we found. 

More Young People Reaching Out 

Over these five years, nearly 29,000 young people sought support from Jigsaw. That’s a lot of young people looking for help, and the numbers kept growing. More referrals have come from family members, teachers, and GPs, showing that young people aren’t the only ones recognising the need for mental health support—those around them are stepping up too. 

One notable improvement is the increase in male referrals over time. While young women still make up the majority of referrals, we’ve seen a steady rise in young men seeking support, which is an encouraging shift. This suggests that awareness and accessibility efforts may be helping to break down some of the barriers traditionally preventing young men from engaging with mental health services. 

So, who’s the average Jigsaw user? They’re 16 years old, most likely female, and struggling with anxiety. Anxiety was by far the most common reason young people sought support, followed by low mood and stress. In fact, anxiety-related presentations increased significantly over the five years, reflecting wider concerns about youth mental health globally. But while demand was rising, so were wait times.  

One of the most worrying trends in our data is the rising levels pf distress and young people presenting with high risk of self-harm. While levels fluctuated between 2017 and early 2020, our data suggests that things took a sharp decline after the pandemic, with risk peaking between mid-2020 and 2022—right when lockdowns, school closures, and uncertainty were at their worst. Even though things have steadied somewhat, risk levels are still higher than before. Now more than ever, we need to ensure early intervention services are reaching those most at risk. 

 

Who’s Attending, and Who’s Dropping Out? Who’s Attending, and Who’s Dropping Out? 

Not everyone who reaches out for support stays engaged. On average, young people attended six sessions, but some came for just one, while others completed the full program. Gender played a role—young men were less likely to stick with it. Anxiety kept young people engaged, but severe distress, especially for 17- to 25-year-olds, made it harder to continue. Referral source mattered too—those referred by parents stayed engaged more than those referred by schools or GPs. Timing also played a part, with more young people starting therapy in January and September, but engagement dipping in June and December. 

Moving Forward: Strengthening Youth Mental Health Support 

Expand Access to Brief Interventions:
To meet increasing demand, we need continued investment in short, targeted interventions that provide immediate support while ensuring resources remain available for those who need longer-term care. 

Develop Tailored Engagement Strategies for Young Men:
With young men likely to attend fewer sessions we must rethink how services are delivered—offering less formal, more practical, and accessible formats that meet their unique needs. 

Strengthen Family and Community Involvement:
Since family referrals improve engagement, we should focus on empowering parents and caregivers with tools and knowledge to support their child’s mental health journey. Schools, youth organizations, and communities must also play a stronger role in early intervention. 

 

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