Be Yourself - Everybody Else Is Taken young people report
Download (PDF 617.47 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Dorset created this report to hear from younger people about their lives, about what it is like to be them and what are the health and wellbeing issues for them.
Over 150 contributions in a wide variety of mediums – including images, painting, blogs, vlogs, films, poetry - helped to give an insight into how young people are feeling. Healthwatch Dorset engaged with schools, colleges, universities and community groups, and ran school assemblies, creative workshops and small focus groups, where they discovered the stresses young people face, the pressure of social expectations, their fears and their general overview on opening up about their problems.
These groups consisted of 1-2-1 chats, games, artwork and group discussions. They gave young people the opportunity to talk about their story and highlighted how being listened to really helped.
Key themes of the report included two in particular:
- The first is the depth of emotion and feeling, expressed in recurring words such as –understand me: stop bullying me: rage: fear: hate: invisible: drowning in endless thoughts: depression: anxiety: sad: alienated: broken: worthless: isolated: rejected: inferior: ashamed: vulnerable: worthless.
- The second is the positive messages people wanted to give to others, like: “Don’t bottle it up. Talk about it. Be brave. Beat it.”, “Be supporting and accepting towards anyone you meet.”, “Don’t be quiet and keep it all in. There are always people that want to listen.”
Key messages included:
• The key is early intervention and raising awareness.
• Mental Health should be spoken about from a young age. The term “mental health” should be used so that it no longer becomes a taboo subject.
• Each year, as a young person develops, their understanding of mental health and stress should grow. They should be encouraged to open up and discuss how they feel, whether it’s in a group environment or on a 1-2-1 basis.
There are no recommendations in this report and it does not include a response from any service providers.