Your Voice Counts: Young People Mental health Report, Hampshire
Download (PDF 2.86 MB)Summary of report content
The project ‘Your Voice Counts’ is a project commissioned by North East Hampshire and Farnham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The aim is to gather the public’s experiences of using mental health services and look at the support that they receive and how it can be improved.
HealthwatchHampshire carried out focus groups, conversations, and an engagement event in two localities; Hart and Rushmoor between April and June 2017.
Our key findings included;
Referral Process - A few have said that when they are at crisis point, they had to wait for their referral to be processed. They have expressed that there should be preventative services in place to support them while waiting for the support and suggested that if this was already in place, they would not reach crisis point.
Mental Health services are backlogged and evidenced that 40% of the referrals coming through are not meeting the service’s criteria. Transition Resources/preventative methods
GPs say that they refer to appropriate services however the waiting times are lengthy to be seen soon as possible
Young people are reporting that they are not certain of who to go to for the support, in fear of not being taken seriously.
Signposting and coordinating - Parents/CarersParents and carers needs were reflected in their attendance to PACE event, delivered by CAMHS. One attendee said it was the best thing they have done, to have a direct conversation with a CAMHS professional to get on the path of the right support as their GP did not refer to the service and they were not aware that they could self-refer.
Schools - Schools felt that they have not been supported and wanted more involvement. Two schools reported spending approximately £50,000 an academic year on employing mental health professionals, responding to the needs of their students internally as there is an increase in demand.
HGealthwatch Hampshire made a number of referrals in this report and the CCG stated they would take these into consideration when planning future services.