The youth will out
It is not surprising that adult services with an older clientele offer little appeal to most young people. We would argue that there is a role for specialist, community-based mental health services which are targeted specifically at the 16–25 age group, and we would also strongly support work to influence commissioners to recognise the value of commissioning services for this age group. Voluntary sector organisations and youth counselling services have an important role to play in this regard.
However, there is also much that can be done within traditional AMHS to make them more engaging
to young people and remove some of the access barriers to support.
If you are considering how you can make your service more accessible to young people, we have provided some ideas and suggestions, based on the experiences of the four Right Here projects.
“I went to a group last week… it was all older people. I felt really uncomfortable… a lot of young people
won’t go when it’s all older people. Young people feel better with young people.”
– Young person, Right Here Sheffield