Seminar objectives

Brought to you by the Wellcome Trust Mental Health Priority Area and The Mental Elf. This free seminar will:

• Introduce Wellcome’s Mental Health Priority Area and the concept of “active ingredients”, including Wellcome’s first Active Ingredients Commission in 2020
• Present a different way of doing mental health research by involving young people with lived experience – why is this important?
• Describe some of the projects commissioned by Wellcome in 2020, focusing on their approach in involving young people
• Announce the 2021 Active Ingredients Commission and provide a space for discussion

Our expert panel:

1. Cat Sebastian, Evidence Lead for the Mental Health Priority Area at Wellcome
2. Grace Gatera, Wellcome Lived Experience Consultant
3. Shuranjeet Takhar, Wellcome Lived Experience Consultant
4. Researchers from the 2020 commission (TBC)

In 2020, Wellcome commissioned 30 research teams to review the evidence on the one active ingredient they considered to be a “best bet” for preventing and treating anxiety and depression in 14-24-year-olds, worldwide. Some of the active ingredients we commissioned involved things that might be found in a traditional medicine cabinet (e.g. antidepressants), others tapped into different ways of thinking (e.g. reducing repetitive negative thoughts), some were things that we can do as individuals (e.g. exercise), whilst others would require government action (e.g. increased urban access to green spaces).

We now want to enrich the picture drawn by the 2020 reviews which were not intended to represent an exhaustive list of potentially effective active ingredients.

New funding call

Wellcome is now seeking to commission up to 20 global research teams, aiming to fund at least 5 from low- and middle-income countries. Alongside young people with lived experience expertise, each team will review the evidence for one of the active ingredients they deem to be missing, such as reducing discrimination, fostering a sense of purpose, preventing and protecting young people from abuse and trauma, and developing healthy and nurturing family relationships.

Useful links

To find out more about Wellcome’s Mental Health Priority Area, see: https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work/mental-health-transforming-research-and-treatments 

To learn more about the Active Ingredients Commission 2021, see: https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work/mental-health-transforming-research-and-treatments#commissions-dce9

If you want to learn more about the active ingredients reviews completed in 2020, please see the Mental Elf blogs, podcasts and videos.