Your Voices Amplified Oct 2017
Your Voices Amplified Your voice matters that s why Amplified is making sure that children, young people and their families can all have their say when it comes to the mental health system. YoungMinds is the UK s leading charity committed to improving the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. Together with NHS England, NEL Commissioning Support Unit and our team of young people, parents, carers and professionals, we re working to: Empower young people, parents and carers Support young people and their families to be better informed about mental health Increase the participation of young people and their families in caring for their own mental health at individual, organisational, local and national levels. We have launched Amplified with an invitation to young people, parents, carers and professionals to tell us about your experiences with participation in mental health, including all your ambitions and challenges. Here is a summary of what you shared with us. Over the next four years, we ll be working with young people, parents and professionals right across young people s mental health services, developing the strengths you ve highlighted, and confronting the difficulties. If you d like to, you can read the full report here. 2 Your Insights: Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
Young People 84% of young people agree that looking after their mental health will affect their life in a positive way 87% of young people agree they have an important role to play in looking after their own mental health 1. We want to be actively involved in looking after our own wellbeing, but to do this we need more information about mental health. We know there is already information out there, but it isn t always created with the needs of young people in mind. 2. We want to be actively involved in looking after our own wellbeing, but to do this we need more information about mental health. We know there is already information out there, but it isn t always created with the needs of young people in mind. 3. We know there are services to help young people mental health problems, but we aren t always sure how to get in touch with them, or which young people they will be able to offer support to. We think every young person should have access to this information. 4. When we are getting support, we believe that caring for ourselves is as important as the care we get from professionals. We want more information and support to help us take a more active role in our own care, treatment and recovery. 5. Getting help from trained professionals when we need it is really important to us, but it s also important to feel that those professionals respect our views and experiences. We want to be more involved in the decisions made about our mental health care, and better informed about who might be able to find out what we say in our appointment. Less than half of young people are confident they can find services in their local area to help with their mental health 80% of young people who are getting mental health support believe the most important aim of the support they re receiving is to achieve goals that matter to them 3 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
6. Our participation in organisations needs to be planned with each of us individually. If we re very unwell or very busy there may be times we feel less able to involve ourselves, but we should have the chance to be more involved again when we re ready. 7. We believe we can improve the services we use by getting involved in planning and designing processes. We want more chances take part in these decisions, and to get clear feedback on how our input has made a difference. 8. We have the motivation and knowledge to play an important role in shaping our communities, so that they are places that really help us achieve what matters to us in life. We want to be able to find more opportunities to do this, especially online. 9. We want some changes in children and young people s mental health, especially in relation to tackling stigma around mental health, creating quicker and easier access to mental health services and more support in schools. We believe we have the most important role to play in achieving these changes, so we need to be involved in decision making at a national level. 10. We have different experiences of mental health and mental health services and those of us who feel we get good treatment believe there are some other young people who are not treated as well as we are. We want every one of us to have an equally good experience of services and want to have a role in making that happen. 72% of young people agree getting involved in decisions about how their services are run will help make them better for themselves and other young people 82% of young people agree that by working together young people can improve communities and deal with social issues to make things better for everyone 71% of young people agree that young people are interested in getting involved in improving society 1in4 young people agree that services treat some other young people (from different backgrounds or communities) either better or worse than themselves 4 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
Parents and carers 2/3 of parents feel confident they can encourage their child to do things which will support their positive mental health Over 90% of parents have tried to access information about mental health to support their child 1. We believe we have the most important role of anyone in supporting our child s wellbeing throughout their lives, but we need easier information and resources to feel confident doing this especially if we start to have concerns about our child s mental health. 2. We are keen to support our children to access professional mental health care when they are experiencing difficulties, but we do not always know how to make sure our child is referred to the right place, or how to make sure our efforts are followed up. 3. We believe that getting parents and carers more involved in service decision making is likely to improve the experience of young people using the service, as well as our own service experience as parents. Importantly for us, feeling more involved in services would also help us to support our children between appointments when they are receiving care. 4. As individuals, many of us would be interested in getting involved with service evaluations, as well as other management processes, but we sometimes lack both time and confidence. When we do dedicate our time and energy to improving services, it s important to us to feel recognised, and to know that our contributions have been listened to. 5. We believe that both young people and parents have the motivation and ability to get involved in shaping our local communities, and are eager for our families to have a voice, but we need more information about where to find the opportunities to do this. 94% of parents agree that getting parents more involved in service planning could improve the wellbeing of children and young people 96% of parents agree that getting parents more involved in service decisions could improve the support that parents can give their child 67% of parents agree that young people are interested in getting involved in improving society 5 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
Professionals 1. We want young people to be more involved in making decisions about their mental health but worry about the possible risks for them. We would like more training to build our confidence and skills in participation. 2. We believe participation is important because we think it improves young people s experiences and outcomes during treatment, but we re not always as confident about how young people s involvement links to service improvement and local transformation. 3. We are ambitious about developing the influence of young people and their families in our service, but frequently feel challenged by lack of time and resources. We would like to see an allocated budget and staff time available to help us develop participation. 4. We want to make sure that participation is meaningful rather than tokenistic. For this to happen, we believe that the views of young people need to be championed by all our members of staff especially senior managers. 5. We recognise that young people from certain backgrounds and cultures sometimes have more difficulty in taking up participation opportunities in our organisation - we would like support to engage groups of young people, to make sure the young people we work with are representative of everyone using the service. 83% of professionals think young people should be more involved in shaping the decisions that impact day to day operation of their organisation Over 89% of professionals agree that participation can help achieve positive social and emotional outcomes for young people 73% of professionals agree young people s participation is valued in their organisation 49% of professionals agree that participation is properly resourced in their organisation 52% agree participation is supported by effective policies and systems 6 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
What Amplified will do now We ve worked with our Youth and Parent Advisors to start setting out the next four years of support, using the insights you ve given us to set priorities in development for young people, parents and carers. Below we ve set out our commitments so far. It s not too late to get involved with Amplified and shape these plans. Click here to join our networks and find out more, or email amplified@youngminds.org.uk with comments. We ll be circulating an updated commitment table to the Amplified Networks every year. We heard That there is confusion about what participation in children and young people s mental health means. It would be helpful to have more clarity across different types of organisations - from universal to specialistabout how and where to involve young people. So, we will... Produce a simple glossary of common words related to participation with examples of how they apply in different settings Include a clarification of language section in every masterclass Produce case studies showing participation in action in schools and other settings outside of specialist services Young people and parents believe their schools are place where they expect to get info about mental health and find out about opportunities. Schools want to promote participation but aren t sure exactly what their role should be around youth participation in mental health Develop a schools Amplified page which gives clear outline of how youth participation in mental health relates to schools and how Amplified can support education setting. Develop an open masterclass specifically aimed at addressing the role young people want schools to play in increasing their involvement Continued... 7 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
We heard Participation in self-care around mental health is valued by young people, parents/carers and professionals across all settings. However, professionals want to be clearer about the relationship between prevention and participation and how they can promote self-care and self-management in their work So, we will... Develop a masterclass on participation and prevention Incorporate self-care and self-management management in the Participation: The Basics masterclass for mental health services Young people and parents/carers have the motivation to get involved in strategic decision-making in services but recognise they need the right information and support to do so. Professionals want young people to be involved but worry they don t have the right knowledge to have a meaningful role. Develop a masterclass and guidance on involving young people and parents/carers in strategic processes and governance in the children and young people s mental health system Publicise case studies of services and other health bodies, including commissioning bodies, who have done/are doing this and the models they have used and lessons learned Publicise youth and parent friendly summaries of the mental health commissioning process that can be used by CCGs and other local health bodies Young people, parents and carers and all professionals are all concerned about the possible impact of mental illness on young people s capacity to engage in participation activities and professionals are worried that for some young people, participation might be an extra pressure for them when they are already struggling Develop a masterclass on supporting the participation of young people experiencing mental illness in safe and meaningful ways Provide a space in masterclasses and co-production workshops to explore questions and concerns around balancing risk and benefits in participation Professionals are passionate about- and committed to- the participation of young people and parents and carers but recognise that their organisations don t always have the basics like resources, commitment from leadership, structures and policies in place to enable good quality participation of young people and parents and carers Develop a masterclass and guidance on the basic enablers organisations need in place to get participation started and sustain it Develop with different types of settings templates of participation strategies that other organisations can adapt to their own work Develop a support offer- such as webinar and online resources- for system and service leaders around how they can be an affective organisational champion for participation and promote this in year 2 Continued... 8 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
We heard Young people and parents and carers are clear that their involvement in service level and local decision-making around mental health services could improve services and local systems- however they don t currently feel involved nor find it easy to find opportunities. On the other hand, while professionals are convinced of the benefits of participation for young people themselves, they are less certain about the role participation can play in service improvement and local transformation So, we will... Focus on involvement in local systems in Year 2 of the programme- promoting masterclasses, guidance and co-production workshops around participation in commissioning and local systems Develop greater links into SCNs and with commissioners across local systems to ensure they are able to access support offered by Amplified Publish case studies of local systems that are effectively involving young people and parents/ carers in their decision-making Develop resources e.g through masterclasses and online guidance around the case for participation in service improvement and local transformation Young people and parents are not confident around many aspects of mental health literacy including how, when and where to seek support- nor on their rights around confidentiality once they access services Promote template resources for a range of settings on sharing this information with young people and parents/carers Young people want to sustain and build their involvement in decision making around care and treatment Promote access to resources that support shared decision-making on the Amplified web pages and in relevant masterclasses Young people and parents want to be involved in decision-making locally and nationally but can t easily find out how to get involved Work with NHS England to better publicise opportunities for young people and parents and carers to participate at a national level Use the Amplified Youth and Parent/Carer Networks to publicise more opportunities for local and national involvement to young people and parents/carers 9 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
Accessing Amplified support We asked professionals what we can do to make Amplified participation support most helpful and accessible to you, including event types, timings and formats. Based on the feedback we ve received so far, we plan to: Run some of the planned Masterclasses as webinars Upload slides from Masterclasses to the Amplified web pages Develop participation activities and templates for services to use Tailor resources and support to suit the differing contexts of different parts of the system - especially mental health services, schools and commissioning and other local health bodies Hold events for local young people on both Saturdays and week days Click here to find out more about Amplified resources and support. 10 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
Participation within Amplified #TeamAmplified Young people, parents, carers and professionals are co-producing every part of Amplified. We want everyone who engages with the programme, whether they are a young person, parent, carer or professional, to feel that their expertise is recognised and valued and to have an inspiring, meaningful, and positive experience. Parents Voices Amplified Digital Network Parent Advisors Parent Participation Champions Youth Advisors Youth Participation Champions Youth Voices Amplified Digital Network Here s how our structure works: 1. Digital Participation Network Members Thousands of young people, parents and professionals have already joined our Digital Networks. They ll be able to receive updates, hear about participation roles in the programme, participate in online surveys and votes, and take part in social media campaigns. 2. Participation Champions 15 parents/carers and 15 young people volunteer with Amplified every year to cocreate masterclasses, social media campaigns, and resources, as well as co-delivering training and representing the programme national and local events. They ll also be working with us to evaluate participation in services and identify good practice. Click here to find out more about our Participation Champions and Advisors. 3. Advisors Four parents/carers and four young people participate in the leadership of the project. Advisors- co-produce the programme strategy, the communications strategy and brand, co-manage the programme budget; participate in recruitment and training of programme staff; represent the programme at NHS England meetings and speak out about the programme and participation at events. 11 Your Voices Amplified youngminds.org.uk/amplified
About YoungMinds YoungMinds is the UK s leading charity championing the wellbeing and mental health of young people. We exist so that young people have the strongest possible voice in improving their mental health. We strive to make sure everything from practice in schools and services to Government policy is driven by young people s experiences and aspirations. We support parents to help their children through difficult times, we equip professionals to provide the best possible support to the young people that they work with, and we empower young people to change their world. Telephone 020 7089 5050 Parents Helpline 0808 802 5544 YoungMinds Suite 11 Baden Place Crosby Row London SE1 1YW ymenquiries@youngminds.org.uk youngminds.org.uk Registered charity number: 1016968 Company limited by guarantee number: 02780643