This document discusses using design approaches and digital technologies to improve mental health. It provides examples of using social media, community media projects, and co-production with young people to empower communities and challenge stigma around mental health. Design approaches that shift power and involve marginalized voices in collaborative problem solving are highlighted. While technology alone cannot fix youth mental health, enabling young people as partners through digital literacy and citizenship can help them take an active role in their own wellbeing. Sustaining change over the long term requires changing systems, policies, and addressing injustices in addition to innovation.

1. Design on the Inside –
Focus on Mental Health
Friday 17th
May 2019, Lighthouse, Glasgow
Dr Trevor Lakey FRSA
Health Improvement & Inequalities Manager,
Mental Health, Alcohol and Drugs
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
@synedrum

2. Through the Wormhole – Public
Health Journeys in Cyberspace
@synedrum 9.5 years and 18,300 tweets later….
Domains of learning and progress?
1.New ways of gaining and sharing knowledge;
2.Digital approaches for aiding empowerment and
involvement of marginalised communities for health;
3.New ways of addressing complex challenges
https://ayrshirehealth.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/through-the-wormhole-by-syned

3. Citizen Empowerment and
Digital Innovation
Chief Almir of
Amazonian
Surui tribe –
partnership
with Google
Earth
Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky

4. Service design and allied concepts…
•Hackathons, design sprints, personas
•Double Diamond models and spirals of innovation
•Social Labs, i-Teams, Tech4Good
•Open data and open mapping
•Empowerment of marginalised voices, hyperlocal news
•Coproduction concepts
•Unexpected partners and new disciplines… Snook!
•It’s about methods but mainly about shifting power
and valuing different experiences, collaborative
problem solving

6. Mind Waves – Community
Media for Positive Mental
Health
Established 2011, supports a network of “Community
Correspondents” to create and share positive news
and opinions about mental health and wellbeing in
Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Hundreds of stories now online – text, video, podcasts,
interviews, photo-competitions, campaigns – many
from people with lived experience of mental health
problems – helping to challenge stigma
www.mindwavesnews.com @mindwaves1

7. Aye Mind – digital resources for youth mental
health
www.ayemind.com @ayemind99 #ayemind

8. ‘Digital Wellbeing Collaborative’ members and
range of local youth groups and young people
8
Aye Mind Collaborative

9. Co-production in action
- Making animated gifs to communicate on
mental wellbeing issues
9
“serious fun”

10. Co-production in action
- Making animated gifs to
communicate on mental wellbeing
issues
10
Animated Gifs –
covering range of
wellbeing themes,
devised entirely by
young people
Gif making
competition – run by
Young Scot – around
80 submissions,
winning Young Scot
reward points

11. Aye Mind - One Giant Leap
”Technology will not of itself fix youth mental health – though it
has an increasingly valuable role to play.
“We need to start seeing young people as partners in creating
their own wellbeing. They need to be enabled through digital
literacy and wider citizenship approaches to be active agents in
this process.
“Young people need multiple support options that work with the
grain of their networked lives, backed by empathic adults”
AyeMind.com blogpost, June 2016, Trevor Lakey
11

12. Service design and mental health –
conclusions
•Design approaches can bring a vital extra dimension to
responding to complex mental health challenges
•Put “user” experiences and expertise at the heart of
solutions and be prepared to rock-the-boat / break the
rules (and to “play”)
•Sustaining change past the initial phase –the longer,
harder slog to change hearts and minds, vested interests,
systems, procedures, policies, resources
•Sometimes it’s just things like decent levels of support for
pre-existing groups, services, carers, rather than more
innovation …and tackling burning injustice!