Session 6: Supporting young people
Introduction
Supporting young people who are experiencing mental health issues can be challenging for both parents and practitioners. In this session, you will learn about some of the strategies that could make a real difference to any young person you are concerned about. You will draw on knowledge about what can help young people manage their mental health, as well as some insights gained from neuroscience.
To get started, watch this video in which young people who have experienced mental health problems discuss what has helped them.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1: Another Way: Young people talk mental health
Transcript: Video 1: Another Way: Young people talk mental health
RHIANNON
I had no where to go to. I was completely isolated. I just thought I was a complete freak. I thought I was a nutcase.
CATHERINE
I remember sitting in a classroom with my parents, my learning mentor, and my head of year being like you know he needs to get help. I remember them calling up my doctor being like she needs to get an emergency appointment. And then they were like well, we don't really have any spaces. So that was straight to A&E for me.
SPEAKER 3
Everything that I said to them they came back to me and said that it wasn't true, you know. I find it very difficult to open up and having someone say OK no, you're lying. That was a big shock.
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JAYME
In a clinical setting it can really be difficult to try and connect with the people, to connect with the professionals.
GRACE
When I was in services nobody ever asked me what I wanted or asked me if I felt able to do any of the things they were prescribing to me. It was very prescriptive.
FRANKIE
There's definitely a lot of stigma around being a young person as well because there's the assumption that when you're a young person you don't have anything to say.
CATHERINE
Being under the age of 18 you feel like you have a lot less rights. People are telling you what to do and it feels like you're so out of control.
VINCENT
Organizations such as CAMS don't start early enough. They wait for you to fall to the bottom.
GRACE
I first got some counseling from off the record when I was about 13, 14. And then I developed an eating disorder. Then I got involved with off the record again through volunteering on the mentality project.
SPEAKER 4
So does anybody have anything they'd like to start with?
GRACE
And now I run the mentality project. Off the record we have counseling or CBT specifically for young people who may be having more severe problems. But then we offer a whole range of other things.
FRANKIE
I've always loved climbing so I would climb every single tree I would find and it's also nice for problem-solving how am I going to do this climb? What moves should I do? Where will I go next?
GRACE
We have less of a medical approach to mental health so we're self-referral, which means young people don't need a doctor or a GP or a teacher or a social worker to refer them. We take referrals direct from young people.
SPEAKER 6
The majority of people who use like slurs and things like that don't do it vindictively it's just ignorance. Mostly ignorance comes from a lack of understanding, a lack of compassion and you fight that--
FRANKIE
It's just the fact that the people there are just so lovely. Having a really lovely person makes the absolute major difference.
RHIANNON
It makes people come out of their shells. Like I've seen so many people who didn't talk, didn't do anything. And then you get to know them and they have all these talents and they have so much to offer the world. They always ask, well, what you're knitting. I'm like it's just for me. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be pretty. Something to keep my hands busy, something to so not with.
GRACE
We try to encourage this proactive culture of everyone doing something to look after their mental health just like you do your physical health.
VINCENT
No one knows your mental health better than you. The professionals around you are just there to help you rather than to force you to do anything. Cycling helps reduce my anxiety. It made me focus on my physical side rather than mental side.
JAYME
My Warhammer modeling hobby, it's like reading a good book where you just sort of shut off the outside world and you get into that zone and you focus on it and it really helps you to relax. The main services that I use are Freedom Youth, their social support network group for LGBTQ plus young people and for 11 to 25. It's really important that those services are there for when people need them.
FRANKIE
Young people could finally get a voice and to be heard of what we want from services and be included in decision making and things like that.
CATHERINE
I still struggle OCD and anxiety still. They take up a lot of my mind but I'm living a happier life and I can do more of what I enjoy.
GRACE
In fact, this is a membership organization that has lots of different services like subscribing to it and there are always services that see mental health and young people's being in a similar way to off the record. And they try to get organizations such as Off the Record in every area.
RHIANNON
These places are not just important they are lifesaving. Like there shouldn't be a debate about it. They should be everywhere. Every young person should have the equal opportunity to go to these places. They shouldn't have to miss out because of their post code or where they live. It's just vital. It's essential.
Video 1: Another Way: Young people talk mental health
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Returning to the mental health spectrum introduced in Sessions 2 and 3, you might consider that in an ideal world everyone would be sailing along in the ‘healthy’ green zone, with perhaps the occasional dip into the yellow ‘coping’ zone when life becomes challenging. To think about interventions for mental health problems in a simplistic way, the aim is to help young people who are ‘struggling’ or ‘unwell’ to move to the ‘healthy’ or ‘coping’ end of the spectrum.
This session will begin by asking you to consider how you and others in your community can intervene and support a young person by listening actively and promoting helpful strategies.