Improving emotional well-being of young people, Richmond and Kingston

The Youth Councils and local Healthwatch of Richmond and Kingston surveyed young people to get an understanding of their emotional wellbeing and mental health, their experiences of services and their views on how to improve care to meet their needs.

The partners designed and piloted a paper and online surveys with young people to ensure that they were worded in ways that were appropriate and understood. Representatives of the Youth Councils also visited schools and youth clubs to collect responses face to face, attended workshops to support data analysis, and produced a film covering the key findings of this work.

They received 1,580 unique and usable responses from people at 51 schools across Richmond and Kingston. The people responding to this survey closely resembled the wider community in terms of age, gender, sexuality, disability, and ethnicity. One in 3 respondents (571 or 36.2%) had needed to access support for their emotional wellbeing.

Recommendations

1. Address stigma - ensure that people know that they will be treated confidentially and that they can ask for help

2. Promote services currently available so that people know who to ask for help and how to get help

3. Make future services ‘young person centred’. Locate services in the community, accessible outside of school hours with a non-threatening, non-medical environment

4. Change the mode of delivery to be more ‘young person centred’

5. Review CAMHS thresholds and waiting lists

6. Focus care and promotion on people whose sexuality, gender or ethnicity make them least likely to access care

7. Create a positive school environment in relation to emotional wellbeing by raising awareness and opening discussions around mental health within schools

8. Acknowledge academic pressures and limit mental distress caused by it