Mental health / emotional well being

[ukyp]

Campaign proposal

Provide better and more mental health and emotional well being services for all young people

Purpose of campaign

‘Mind Matters’ aims to provide, and sufficiently update current mental health services, making them more accessible to young people across the UK without parental consent (which is currently a limit on young people accessing the services).

‘Mind Matters’ also aims to modernize emotional health and wellbeing education, providing accurate education on mental health issues, to reduce stigma, and increase awareness in mental health issues such as self harm, eating disorders, depression and more.

Bullying can be a very big problem for those with mental health issues, and by raising awareness / reducing stigma treatment for mental health issues can be more effective.

Finally, the campaign aims to create, update, and pull together both online and offline mental health resources, so that young people can get the information they need, quickly. These can be resources such as internet websites, telephone helplines, leaflets, drop-ins etc.

Discuss

· What do you think of this campaign idea?
· Is this issue important to you?
· Is the campaign realistic and achievable?
· What challenges would this campaign face?
· How could we make this campaign successful?

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[pretzels]

Perhaps the fact that this campaign has no comments shows just how hard it is for young people to talk about mental health issues.

I think this is a really important area for many more teenagers than would admit it, but I won't be voting for it as a national campaign just because, as always, it seems it's been reduced to a softly-softly campaign against "bullying".

The UK really needs a service for self harm, eating disorders and depression as FRANK is for drug abuse. It's a much more real problem - everyone talks about drugs, drugs are cool. Mental health, not so much.

[EmmaGallen]

I think it is hard to talk about and I got my school to run a programme about it but the fact is the way you re talked to aged 13 or 14 and feeling depressed is so patronizing. The problem with this campaign is that there's no starting point. Young people have this probles but so do adults and everyone with them are getting insufficient help because there just aren't enough psychiatrists. Plenty of people with poncy psychology degrees who think they can spot n eating disorder but no one with the right medical knowledge to help.

[adamlonsdale]

Hey

The campaign isn't entirely about bullying, that is just one of the benefits that it can bring. It also, isn't just about getting young people 'help'.

I'm trying to get a couple of case studies from people across the country to show how much access to services is a problem. Most GPs, if not all refuse to refer a child (a child being anybody aged of 17 and under) to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), without direct parental consent. A great deal of Young People with mental health issues don't want to speak to their parents, in the same sense about sexual health issues, which means they are denied treatment until the NHS sees them as an adult.

That's the first element of the campaign, getting access to CAMHS, without needing direct parental consent.

CAMHS can also be a postcode lottery, it is relatively good in my area however in many London boroughs, and cities it can be a very poor service leaving young peoples issues unresolved and a waste of time and money to the taxpayer.

That is the second bit, making it consistent across the UK.

There is a website that I came across whilst doing some research on resources, and especially in the Mental Health section, people are constantly complaining about nowhere for them to access because of age, and when they do nothing comes of it. The website in question "TeenHelp" is a genious mechanism in young people can post a problem, and other young people offer support and advice.

That's why resources being pulled together is important. To offer young people who can't access CAMHS at the moment better support and advice.

It is all well and good saying adults experience the same problems, which is quite right but if an Adult wants help they are able to receive it alot easier than young people.

Please don't think the campaign is just abbout 'softly' attacking bullying, with no starting point because it is quite the opposite!

[Paul]

Originally Posted by adamlonsdale

Most GPs, if not all refuse to refer a child (a child being anybody aged of 17 and under) to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), without direct parental consent. A great deal of Young People with mental health issues don't want to speak to their parents, in the same sense about sexual health issues, which means they are denied treatment until the NHS sees them as an adult.

All they need is to be considered Gillick Competent surely? A test that the average 13-14 year old would satisfy.

Gillick competence is a term originating in England and is used in medical law to decide whether a child (16 years or younger) is able to consent to his or her own medical treatment, without the need for parental permission or knowledge.

A child who is deemed "Gillick competent" is able to prevent their parents viewing their medical records. As such, medical staff will not make a disclosure of medical records of a child who is deemed "Gillick competent" unless consent is manifest.

[adamlonsdale]

I have a friend that tried to access the service when he was 15, and this is an A* student, who was refused. It is a similar story for a group that operates in London.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by adamlonsdale

I have a friend that tried to access the service when he was 15, and this is an A* student, who was refused. It is a similar story for a group that operates in London.

Did he ask to achieve gillick competency?

[adamlonsdale]

No, but how many 13 - 14 year olds are going to know what that is to ask for it, without for example proper Emotional Health and Wellbeing Education.

[Paul]

And anyway, what are you on about "no access until 18" - isn't 16 the age of medical competency?

Although I don't see how therapy etc, without drugs, should require parental consent.

[adamlonsdale]

It can be quite a grey area within the medical industry, and I believe it all depends on the individual doctor.

I just realised that there wasnt any statistics in that first post.

1 in 5 Young People Self Harm
92% of People with an Eating Disorder stay silent
1 in 5 have Depression
A Suicide happens every 40 Seconds
100,000,000 were affected by OCD last year worldwide.