CEI PROBLEM SOLVING THERAPIES

Radically transforming mental health science

The Centre for Evidence and Implementation is a global team of research, policy and practice experts that work with governments, policy makers, and funders to use evidence as a means of developing methods and processes that that drive effective decisions. Part of a wider research project, the CEI team were funded by the Wellcome Trust to conduct a review into the effectiveness of different therapy methods for 14-24 year olds with anxiety and depression. In addition to their research report, they were asked to create a short explainer video about what they had found, directed towards an intelligent 14 year old. They asked us to help them create something engaging and informative that fulfilled Wellcome’s brief.

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Copywriting • Illustration • Animation • Sound editing

Capitalised text (Problem Solving Therapy) in white on a yellow background, the ‘Therapy’ is in purple.

After distilling all the technical research and understanding what the research method was about and how effective it was, we worked with the CEI team to decide on the best possible way to reach a youth audience. We decided that having a 14 year old convey the information themselves would be the most engaging, so we cultivated a tone of voice and wrote a script using inclusive language that felt authentic to the desired cohort.

Line illustration of a person with a bonsai tree coming out of the top of their head, the tree is being pruned with scissors and watered at the same time.

Line illustration of a rainbow coming out of two clouds.

Line illustration of a ringing phone with different icons surrounding it in speech bubbles, including a smiley face and waving hand emoji.

To further bring the script to life, we worked with a young voice over actor at the beginning of his career. This not only felt more genuine, but also reflects the client’s, funder’s, and our own values of being accessible and providing opportunities to those who are struggling to get their foot in the door. To accompany the voice over, we composed and produced an original soundtrack that felt youthful yet appropriate for the subject matter.

Line illustration of a person looking down with a sad expression on their face, with lots of different icons floating above their head including Education and Health. The icons are all connected with dotted lines.

Line illustration of two people having a conversation, there is a speech bubble with a dotted line in coming from the person on the left.

We drew bespoke illustrations using a style that we felt would resonate with today’s youth. The slight hand-drawn effect on the lines, married with the colour palette, has a somewhat retro vibe that young people like. We kept the animation fairly simple so that it did not distract from the narration, using clean transitions and clever metaphors to convey all the information.

The animation was well received by the client and the Wellcome Trust, and easily stood out as the most creative amongst the other submissions. It has done well on socials etc

Line illustration of a person hiding underneath a table in an office environment, the person is crying.

Radically transforming mental health science

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The Chapters

Nesta Explainer Series