We have collaborated with our members on two different projects about young people's mental health funded by Healthwatch. I was struck by a discussion with a colleague this week that I thought worth mentioning in the blog.
Where would you
turn to if you had a mental health problem? Online? Family? Friends? GP?
Our sample of
young people would look online first and maybe go to a friend. Only a subset would go to a
professional such as teacher or GP. Few would go to parents.
I will say that again. Only a subset would go to a professional and few would go to parents.
This leaves us
with a real challenge as to how to support young people with mental health. We
can have all the services in the world but if they don’t make use of them, what’s
the point? This needs to be the starting point for all service designs.
Any comments? Ideas? Feel free to respond or email me.
