Future in Mind - Case studies

Healthwatch Wakefield was asked to collect number of case studies with young people who had experienced mental health issues and how they had tried to get advice or support. The outcome identified for this element of the work was to hear about local young people’s experiences and to give them a voice.  They spoke to 8 young people.

Although the studies were with a relatively small number of young people it was encouraging to find that some had positive experiences. This covered a range of different professionals and services including a GP, a Youth Offending Team worker, a community worker, a nurse, a police constable, and CAMHS.

Of the negative experiences the young people had with accessing or receiving services some of them talked about the difficulties in making contact or going to the service, and for some of them it made them so anxious they had not continued to find, or continue with, support.

Another theme was the lack of suitable, age appropriate services.

A further issue mentioned was how the young people felt about the process once in a service such as ticking boxes, being fixed within a timescale and workers avoiding some issues brought to them.

There is an issue with the lack of gender appropriate professionals. There is also an issue with age appropriate services or services where you can transition.