The Health, Care and Wellbeing of Young People who are Care Experienced in Essex

Healthwatch Essex wanted to look at ‘Hidden Homeless’ cohorts in society who generally experience increased barriers in achieving their health, care and wellbeing outcomes. This is the third report in the ‘Hidden Homeless’ series, focussing on the lived experience of care leavers/care experienced people in Essex.  They undertook interviews and focus groups.

There is still work to be done to improve the way that the care experienced/care leavers access help and advice regarding their health and wellbeing needs. These young people can struggle to build a trusted relationship with adults in their lives and having (at times) a constant change of foster carer or social worder does not help this situation. Many young people feel they are left to fend for themselves and are unable to access someone to help them when they need it.

There needs to be improved understanding from health professionals outside of the care system regarding the experiences of young people involved in the care system and how that may have impacted how and when they access healthcare. Improved information online for young people to access; some of the county wide websites that young people may use to access information were not very detailed. 

That young people are still feeling that they are not being heard/listened to when it comes to their health and wellbeing needs remains is an ongoing concern. They can’t always rely on the adults around them to be there when they need them and this causes deficits in timely and effective responses. 

Young people need to be able to build strong, trusted, long term relationships with an adult they can rely on to be there to support and hear them when required. So many of them felt let down by the adults in their lives who were meant to be there to help them. When the parental figures in life cannot provide what is required for a young person to be safe and thrive, then the state must do that for them and currently many young people are feeling let down and unsupported by the system that is meant to be helping and protecting them