Healthwatch emotional wellbeing report

In Spring 2018, Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire was asked by the Northamptonshire Health and Care Partnership (NHCP) to gather young people’s views on local mental health services. To do this they devised a survey to ask young people across the county about their emotional wellbeing and access to services, specifically their frustrations and what services they would like to support them. 749 young people between the ages of 11 and 19 responded to the survey, including 45 young people who identified as being a ‘young person in care’ and 71 who said they looked after someone with an illness or disability (carers).

They asked young people to score their emotional wellbeing across the range of one to ten, and received a full range of scores, with boys reporting better emotional wellbeing than girls. The young people we spoke to valued knowing where to go to get support for their emotional wellbeing and over one-third had needed to access support. Young people had differing experiences of services, with many finding Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) difficult to access or finding long waiting times for services an issue. Support at school and self-help services were things that young people would find useful to support their emotional wellbeing.

This report aims to improve service provision for young people accessing mental health and wellbeing services in Northamptonshire, especially where those young people do not fit the criteria for services such as CAMHS. It ensures the voices of young people are heard at a strategic level by feeding into the NHCP and local ‘Future in Mind’ Transformation Plan refresh.