David Blunkett MP shows his support for young people’s mental health

at Right Here Sheffield

16^th May 2012-

As part of mental Health Awareness Week, David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, today joined young people at the Right Here Project in Sheffield to discuss the need for early intervention support to protect young people’s mental health.

Right Here, a five year partnership between Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Mental Health Foundation, is developing radical new approaches to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 16 to 25. Young people’s participation is fundamental to how all of the projects operate, as is partnership working.

The Right Here Sheffield project is working specifically in the North East of Sheffield where there are higher than average levels of deprivation and unemployment (ranking of overall deprivation of between 7% and 14%) and where young people in the area are more likely to be exposed to risk factors that may have a negative impact on their mental health.

David Blunkett MP said:

“I’m deeply impressed with the work of the Right Here Project. Intervening at this stage of the lives of young people can make the kind of difference that would literally save their future and avoid massive intervention later.

Key to the Right Here approach is that young people themselves drive the development and design of services, in partnership with local statutory and voluntary sector agencies.  This means Right Here interventions are both relevant and appealing to young people, encourage engagement, and challenge the stigma and discrimination which surrounds mental health care.”

Dr Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive at the Mental Health Foundation says:

“At a time when young people’s level of anxiety is rising, it is crucial to make sure their mental health is supported early and before they become ill.

It’s good to showcase the successes of the Right Here Project to such a distinguished political figure.”

Cherry Smith, Right Here Sheffield Manager, YMCA White Rose says:

“Over the last three years, the Right Here Sheffield partnership has been working with young people aged 16-25 in schools, colleges and local community settings, delivering group work programmes aimed at building young people’s resilience and promoting and protecting their mental  health and wellbeing.

“Young people have played an important role in helping us design and deliver these activities.  We’re really pleased to have the opportunity to meet David Blunkett and to talk to him about the need for early intervention support in order to protect young people’s mental health and reduce the number of young people needing more specialist support”.

We’re pleased to announce that Interchange CIC have been selected to take part in ‘GP Champions for Youth Health’ - a pioneering national project to improve young people’s health.

Ten sites around England have been chosen for the three year project, which is funded by the Department for Health. Interchange will deliver the project in partnership with Right Here Sheffield and Pitsmoor GP Surgery.

The project aims to bridge the gap between GPs and the Voluntary Youth Sector by making health services more ‘young people friendly’ and to extend the options for GPs around issues such as counselling and making use of expertise in the voluntary sector.

Cherry Smith, Right Here Sheffield Project Manager and Will Carlile, GP at Pitsmoor Surgery took part in the launch event in London back in December.

The initiative is being run by the Association for Young People’s Health (AYPH) and Youth Access, together with the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Adolescent Health Group.

AYPH chief executive Emma Rigby said: “We are very excited to be working with Interchange CIC, Right Here Sheffield and Pitsmoor Surgery and hope we can make a real difference to health services for young people in this area. We will address some of the specific health problems young people face such as depression, alcohol and substance misuse and poor sexual health.”

Youth Access director Barbara Rayment said: “There is a wealth of expertise in the voluntary youth sector and we hope this project will help GPs make more use of the fantastic services available locally. We also want young people from the voluntary sector to help GPs develop better services for their age group.”

The Department of Health has offered Sheffield Right Here the exciting opportunity of working with Pitsmoor GP Surgery to transform the delivery of health services for young people by creating new links between GP’s and voluntary youth services.  Two Emotional Wellbeing Workers from the Right here Project, Lois Miller and Angela Barrows, have teamed up with a Sheffield Mind project to interview young people on the streets of Pitsmoor about their use of local GP’s.  The results of  this work will be sent to local GPs and shared with the NHS Trust Community development Team and Pitsmoor GPs to inform future work.

What does mental health mean to you? For many young people the phrase is meaningless, and as much as ones physical health is looked after, the same cannot be said for their mental health.

So what is mental health? The way you behave, and the way you feel are all down to your mental health. Whether you feel happy, bored, or sad, it is due to your mental health. When you feel good about yourself you don’t really pay attention to your mental health, however when you feel low and negative about yourself you tend to think about it more.

If you feel down, lonely, or sad for a prolonged period of time, you do not have to put up with it. You don’t deserve to feel this way. There are places for you to go, things that you can do to make yourself feel better. Just as we are all prone to catching a cough or a cold, we are also prone to experiencing some sort of emotional distress.

Feeling as if you need to talk to somebody about your feelings, is not something to be embarrassed about. Think about it as taking medicine for your mind, its the sensible thing to do when you have too much on your plate. There is no short supply to the places you can go for help, a place that I have found of great use in times of need is the Interchange Counselling service.

During a time in which I felt like I needed extra support I turned to a professional. Over approximately a two month period I attended weekly sessions at the Interchange Counselling service. It wasn’t like any of the counselling sessions I had experienced before, where I never felt like I had truly explored my thoughts and feelings. During my first session, I rated myself on a scale of one to ten for various things such as thinking positively, self esteem etc. Throughout my experience at the Interchange I was talked to as an equal, and my counsellor helped me realise where my issues lay. I had been told time and time again what was wrong with me, but at the Interchange I saw it for myself, which in turn helped me to help myself. At the end of my time at the Interchange, I rated myself on my self esteem and positive thinking yet again. I had drastically improved, and I was in shock at how low I had ranked myself before.

It is through embracing my own mental health, both the good and the bad, that I have been able to receive help and recover during times of need. Everyone should be able to do this, regardless of your race, religion, gender or orientation, you have mental health and you have a right to look after it.

Written by one of the Y-Act Service Users. Click here to find out more about Y-Act.

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