Report on a Healthwatch Wandsworth Consultation on Mental Health Support for Young People in Wandsworth
What We Did
The conference took place on 3rd July 2015 and was attended by 180 young people.
Representatives of various agencies attended this extremely successful conference as facilitators, stall holders or decision-makers.
One of the topics discussed at the conference was youth mental health, which was also the topic of the consultation carried out by Wandsworth Healthwatch.
The young people who attended the conference were encouraged to complete a questionnaire including four main questions:
- Do you think being able to talk to a counsellor at school would help young people feel better?
- Where should the counselling service be based and why?
- What would you like to talk about in a counselling session?
- What do you think we can do to help you and other young people talk about their mental health and look after themselves?
Group discussions were also also held where the young people were given the opportunity to ask decision makers questions related to mental health.
Afterwards, decision makers were also given the opportunity to ask them questions.
Key Findings and Conclusions
Four themes were identified in the responses given by young people to the questions:
- More mental health education as well as in schools
- Challenge Stigma
- Improve communication with young people
- Offer more practical help
From the discussions additional suggestions were made:
- Stress management programmes during exams.
- Use online assessment tools for a young person to understand when to seek help.
- Use online platforms such as tumblir, which is completely anonymous and is the place where many young people go to talk about how they feel.
The young people who attended the conference were mainly of school age and came from a wide range of backgrounds.
They expressed clear views on the need to talk about mental health in schools, make young people feel less ashamed to seek help and make information and support easily accessible to them.
What happens next
We will share and discuss the results of this work with decison makers and will continue to ask how the suggestions young people made will be considered.
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