Minding Us - Improving services for young people at greater risk of mental illness, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough
Download (PDF 296.57 KB)Summary of report content
The Minding Us project was funded by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) who asked HW CP to speak about mental health with young people who have extra life challenges and experience greater health inequality as defined in the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA).
Children and Adolescents’ Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are undergoing changes.
As part of this work, ten young people’s groups in Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough were visited including young carers, young people who had been sexually exploited and young lesbian and gay people. The groups visited all support young people who are more vulnerable in terms of their exposure to trauma, prejudice, isolation, abuse and disability. They acknowledge there are other young people groups that haven’t been spoken to who may have similar vulnerabilities.
At each group the young people were encouraged to:
• Talk about their opinions and experiences of mental health and the services available.
• Give information about services and resources available in their area.
• Think about how they use and understand language related to mental health.
In addition to the group meetings, a survey was also developed for young people to fill in when having a discussion group was not possible. This helped capture their views in another way. It was also useful for the young people who felt they could not share their experiences in discussion but could write them down anonymously.
Young People spoken to were between the ages of 10 and 23 with the largest group being 15-16 year old.
The report also includes a section on ‘what has changed since our visits?’.