BAY
Summary
BAY (Behavioural Activation for Young people) is a study exploring whether planning valued activities can support better mental health outcomes for young people receiving CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). The intervention uses behavioural activation techniques to encourage participation in meaningful activities as a way of improving mood. We built a mobile-first web app for young people to use alongside their therapy sessions, supported by a clinician-facing interface for therapists to monitor progress and engagement.
Platform
Web app for young people, with a web-based clinician interface.
Funders
Cancer Research UK, Alliance for Cancer Early Detection, The Christie Charitable Fund and Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal
Services
- Digital health research
- Co-design
- UI/UX design
- Software development
- Technical project management
- Quality assurance
Our role & approach
- Collaborated with researchers, clinicians, and young people to co-design a platform that felt relevant and accessible to its audience.
- Built a mobile-first participant app and a clinician portal, ensuring both sides of the therapy process were digitally supported.
- Ensured the interface was appealing and easy to use for young people, while providing clinicians with clear, structured data for review.
- Provided training materials and ran hands-on training sessions for clinicians to support onboarding and effective use of the clinician interface.
What we built: Participant web app
- Eight interactive digital therapy sessions, mirroring the behavioural activation programme, which young people completed sequentially.
- A diary feature to plan and reflect on activities between sessions.
- Mood scoring tools for each activity, where participants rated their experience on a 1–10 scale across four dimensions: mood, achievement, closeness, and enjoyment.
- Mobile-first design optimised for smartphones and tablets, ensuring accessibility for young people both in-session and at home.
What we built: Clinician interface
- Dashboard to review all activity plans, reflections, and mood scores submitted by participants.
- Ability to monitor engagement across sessions and diaries.
- Clear visualisation of participant progress across the four mood dimensions.
- Designed to integrate with CAMHS therapy workflows, supporting in-session discussions.
Outcomes & impact
- Delivered a dual-facing platform that supported young people and clinicians together, digitising behavioural activation therapy for CAMHS.
- Empowered young people to plan, record, and reflect on activities linked to their mental health and well-being.
- Gave clinicians real-time access to participant data, supporting more personalised and informed therapy sessions.
- Provided researchers with structured engagement and outcome data to evaluate the impact of digital behavioural activation.
- Strengthened the evidence base for how digital tools can complement face-to-face therapy in child and adolescent mental health services.
“It’s been a pleasure working closely with the digital team to transfer our paper manual into a vibrant interactive website, co-designed with young people and clinicians. Clinicians have really enjoyed using the site to work with young people, and have appreciated all the support the digital team have provided throughout our study. We now have the potential to transform how we deliver services and increase access to therapies for young people, thanks to the digital team!”
Professor Bernadka Dubicka, Chief Investigator for the BAY study