How to assess whether it’s working
We hope that the suggestions provided in this guide will be useful in terms of providing direction for how to make general practice more accessible to young people, particularly with regard to supporting their wellbeing. However, to fully understand the mental health support needs of the young people in your practice, and the extent to which the practice is addressing them effectively, it may be necessary to undertake some broader needs assessment and evaluation activity.
Here are Right Here’s top five suggestions for evaluation, based on our experience of working with primary care in our four project areas.
- Undertake research with young people in your area to discover what their mental health needs and support preferences are. If required, work with a local youth organisation to support this activity.
- Recruit young people to existing Patient Participation Groups, to enable them to give feedback about the service in your practice.
- Routinely ask young people to give written feedback on the quality of the service they have received.
- Work towards obtaining the Department of Health’s ‘You’re Welcome’ quality criteria, as an indicator that your practice is supportive and welcoming to young people.
- Work with local youth organisations to support the development of a regional young person’s primary care group to consult on regional primary care structures and commissioning process – issues that are wider than those that can be addressed at an individual practice level.