Personalising Mental Health Treatments for Young People Using Machine Intelligence (ProMetheUs)

In machine learning a computer is trained using examples in order to make predictions, such as diagnoses, about new data. It has massive potential to enhance healthcare. Unlike physical healthcare, there have been very few examples of where machine learning has shown potential to enhance children’s mental health services. Demand for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) dramatically outstrips supply, exacerbated by a staffing crisis. Thus, we need to develop technologies that support the efficient delivery of CAMHS. This project will bring together a multidisciplinary group of experts and stakeholders in order to clarify the automated tasks that would change practice; identify the right data, for such work; evaluate new machine learning methods, and approaches to assuring their safety, and; understand the social context in which such tools will be used, to maximise their impact. This will pave the way for a major programme of research in this area.