Research and evaluation

A detailed research plan has been formulated to evaluate the activities of Inspire Ireland and the impact of ReachOut.com. The aim of ReachOut.com is to increase mental health literacy, promote help-seeking behaviour and thereby contribute to more positive mental health outcomes for young people in Ireland.

Inspire Ireland is currently conducting both qualitative and quantitative research.

Service delivery research:

Web statistics

We use web analytics to understand and evaluate the behaviour of visitors to the ReachOut Ireland website. The analysis of these statistics is based on a model of service use that distinguishes levels of interaction. The aim is to capture both the quantity and the nature of website use.

Structured content reviews

All fact sheet content on ReachOut.com is regularly reviewed by a mixture of:

  • Inspire’s Youth Advisory Network
  • Relevant stakeholders with specialised knowledge in specific areas
  • Programme partners

User profiling and longitudinal tracking

The effectiveness of ReachOut.com is being explored through our second annual online cross-sectional user-profile survey. This survey will further develop our understanding of the characteristics of people who use the site, including their demographics (social, cultural and economic factors), personal well-being, mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviour. This survey will be available on the website for a period of about 12 weeks.

The aims of this project are to establish:

  • Who are the visitors using ReachOut.com
  • Why are they using the website
  • Opinions of the website and its content
  • Information on attitudes to mental health, levels of personal mental health, help-seeking preferences and mental health literacy

A sub-sample of those who complete user-profiling will be recruited for longitudinal tracking to determine changes in mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviour.

The effectiveness and impact of ReachOut.com on help-seeking and mental health literacy will be evaluated in the long term by annually repeated user profile surveys.

Ethical approval has been received from the Social Research Ethics Committee of UCC for this research.

Published research

The first user-profiling was incorporated a report – Learning to reach out: Young people, mental health literacy and the Internet. Read more about this report.

Marketing evaluation:

All advertising and marketing activities will be evaluated at least once a year to determine:

  1. 1. Advertising effectiveness
  2. 2. Brand awareness
  3. 3. Brand understanding

Nationwide Focus Group Research

Inspire is committed to working with young people in their communities to gain a better understanding of the issues relevant to them. Inspire Ireland is also committed to both quantitative and qualitative research methods, believing that in-depth face-to-face research methods can yield a rich and deep learning experience. In year one of service delivery, ReachOut.com will host a series of nationwide focus groups with young people across Ireland.

Nationwide focus groups with young people are currently ongoing with the following objectives:

  • To collect qualitative input into the ReachOut.com website, marketing materials and national and local awareness campaigns
  • To examine the role of the internet for service delivery for young people
  • To identify young peoples’ understanding and knowledge of mental health (i.e., mental health literacy)
  • To examine help-seeking and service utilisation among this population

Ethical approval has been received from the Social Research Ethics Committee of UCC for this research.