Right Here's seven steps to youth friendliness
Step 1: Promote, promote, promote
“I’m at university but I have never seen flyers or promotion about mental health services.”
– Young person, Newham
It is quite possible that the young people you are targeting have never heard of your service or don’t know what it can provide. It is worth spending time, therefore, thinking about how you promote and raise awareness of your service.
Do consider involving young people in the creation of promotional materials, as they will help tailor it to their peers. Find out where young people get their information from and think creatively about the use of social media to raise awareness.
To support access to services, Right Here partners, together with young people, are developing Find Get Give, an online, England-wide listings database for mental health services working with 16–25 year olds.
The website also offers young people the opportunity to feed back about their experiences with different mental health services.
See Find Get Give
Step 2: Focus on activities rather than services
“One of the things we did was especially for young people, because of the young audience, we did things like the Irish Youth Music Awards… what we did was express things about the music and that’s really important because it gives you that chance, especially with mental health issues, to talk about [mental health].”
– Young person, Fermanagh
We have found that young people are often drawn to activities rather than services, and particularly to activities that relate to their own personal interests and hobbies.
At Right Here, we were able to try out new early intervention approaches such as rock-climbing, fishing, non-contact boxing and walking groups, all
with built-in mental health promotion.
We have found a great synergy exists between activities which promote physical exercise and the promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing.
Fortunately, there is growing evidence that supports these types of approaches for young people14 and we would strongly encourage others to use this evidence as a launch pad to think more creatively about how to provide mental health support for those aged 16–25.
Step 3: Simplify your referral processes…
“We are thinking about how the specialist provision of CAMHS and IAPT, which reaches a very small proportion of young people overall, can be better linked to early interventions for young people. We are beginning to develop clearer pathways between services.”
– Right Here worker,Sheffield
Convoluted referral processes and long waiting times are not ideal for anyone, but particularly not for young people whose life circumstances can change rapidly. Think about how you can build relationships with services to streamline referral systems and speed up access to support.
To speed up access to local support, Right Here Brighton and Hove launched a Counselling Fast Track service. Right Here worked to develop a referral protocol with an existing young people’s counselling service already established at Sussex Central YMCA. Young people who were involved with Right Here as volunteers or participants had a quick route to counselling assessments and regular appointments.
The service aimed to give young people the help they need early on and to help them continue to benefit from the other activities the project had on offer.
Step 4: …and then simplify your assessment processes too
“Young people are telling us very clearly that sitting them down, and doing a long intrusive assessment with them at their first meeting just doesn’t work and will drive them away.”
– Sheffield IAPT service
If your first contact with a young person involves a protracted assessment process, they may not see what the service can offer them.
A welcoming and low-key start may be more effective in ensuring service uptake than filling in paperwork.
Step 5: Don’t be constrained by traditional healthcare settings
“If you’re at the reception desk and you need to pick up something, a couple of times at my surgery they’ve said my problem out loud and it’s right in front of everyone.”
– Young person, Brighton and Hove
There can be a stigma associated with community mental health clinics and centres which may deter young people from taking that first step through the door. More general medical environments can also be daunting and unwelcoming to young people. Worries about confidentiality can also be a concern.
There is definitely scope to be more creative about where mental health support is located, particularly if you are looking to engage with excluded young people.
In Brighton, Tier 2 community CAMHS offer assessments and appointments in Sussex Central YMCA’s Youth Advice Centre, a young people’s one-stop shop for multiple services, based in a city centre, which is a youth-friendly, non-clinical space.
See Sussex Central YMCA for more information.
MAC-UK’s ‘Integrate’ model takes mental health professionals out of the clinic and onto the streets to work with excluded young people where and when they need it. This can be anywhere, for example: on a bus, in a stairwell, or whilst waiting at court.
See MAC UK for more information.
Step 6: Focus on sustainable, supportive relationships
“It was just such a slow process to build a therapeutic relationship… [and] gain his trust.”
– Right Here worker, Fermanagh
Being asked to repeatedly tell your story to different professionals can be disheartening and reduce the therapeutic impact of the support given.
One of the most significant things that young people have told us makes a difference to them is having a consistent, supportive listening ear.
This does not necessarily need to be a mental health professional, and a number of Right Here projects have explored the potential for youth workers to provide the consistent, supportive role in young people’s support structures.
Peer support can also provide young people with a powerful opportunity to share with others who have lived through similar experiences, which can, in turn, help to reduce isolation and the stigma associated with mental health problems.
Our guide ‘How to… promote mental wellbeing in youth work practice’ describes some ways in which youth workers can develop and maintain supportive relationships with young people.
Mental wellbeing in youth practise
Step 7: Involve young people in service design and delivery
“The young people have given us a bit of oomph, actually. They have given it energy. I think that energised some others in commissioning and provision to be a bit more daring and get things moving a bit more. I think young people have said ‘This is not good enough’, and we’ve been able to listen.”
– Right Here partner,Sheffield
The experience of Right Here has shown that involving young people in service design, delivery and evaluation can result in a whole raft of benefits including the following:
- Services which are more acceptable to young people, leading to greater service uptake.
- Services which use young people themselves in co-production and delivery.
- Improved mental health and wellbeing of young people using services.
- Greater levels of empowerment and engagement among those young people involved in services.
- Fewer stigmatising attitudes from professionals towards young people and their capabilities. Clear and more transparent decision-making processes.
- A group of committed and enthusiastic young people, some of whom will go on to train and move into this field of work themselves, thereby creating dynamic future professionals.
It may require some extra time and resources to support these changes to happen and to encourage meaningful participation to permeate through the whole service design process.
Our advice would be to take it gradually and persevere.
The following tips may also help you to make youth participation a reality:
- Use creative processes to generate ideas. See Innovations Labs for some inspiration.
- Recognise that young people may prefer to express their views to other young people. Consider commissioning young people to undertake research with their peers about their experiences of local services.
- Respect and listen to the views young people express, however challenging. Work with Healthwatch to ensure that young people can express their views through this route as well.
- Support contributions to the Find Get Give website as a way for young people to provide feedback about the services they have received. See Find Get Give