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Final Report
August 2022
R.143/2022
Meet the group members...
"A view shared by many people that we spoke to was that the
"There is still a lot key to tackling mental health
of room for improvement issues is to listen to people. "
within mental health."
Joel Aarya
""
Tom
Kim Lucas
With support from Tom, Kenan, & Poppy & Ciara.
We are the Jersey Youth Parliament Mental Health campaign group.
We feel passionately about mental health for young people and have come together to look at this topic.
Our group began by campaigning to improve mental health in Jersey with the aim to:
· Improve mental health facilities
· Improve services and care
· Improve early prevention strategies
· Improve education and awareness in schools
As the campaign progressed we also considered the causes of poor mental health and wellbeing as well as the barriers that prevented people from accessing support. We hoped to better understand issues faced by our community and make recommendations to the States Assembly to improve prevention strategies.
We have been exploring Article 24, of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that young people have the right to the best healthcare possible and access to information that will help to keep you well. This aligns directly with our campaign work.
Our earlier reports, films and documents can be found via this link.
Our Campaign...
We have been active for 18 months, meeting weekly to work on our campaign.
Campaign Highlights
One of the first things we did as part of our campaign was to run a mental health awareness stall in town to let people know about us and to hear their opinions and experiences. Here we launched our survey for young people.
A view shared by many people that we spoke to was that the key to tackling mental health issues is to listen to people. We think this is an incredibly important message, so we have tried our best to listen to everyone and we hope that we are listened to.
We have met with the Health and Social Services Scrutiny Panel, online, in order to find out what politicians have been doing and to explore which areas we feel need more work. We also had a meeting with Daniela Raffio about plans to improve mental health provisions in the island. We were able to share our feedback and be involved in the conversation about the current services.
Campaign Highlights
We met with the Youthful Minds and learnt about the '6 Ways to Wellbeing'. In response, we created an awareness film which was shared with schools and youth groups to help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues.
We launched a survey and shared it with students to gather data specific to Jersey. We wanted to understand how mental health is dealt with and taught about in and out of school and if young people access support. We created an informative leaflet signposting young people to support available to them.
We participated in creating the People, Power and Protest exhibition at the Jersey Museum with Jersey Heritage. We contributed campaign text, film and links to our online survey.
We hosted a Connecting Voices podcast episodes that focused on mental health. We invited members of the Youthful Minds group as our guests to discuss Youth Mental Health Day and learn about their work.
We looked at the feedback on the Draft Mental Health Strategy for Children and Young People. Whilst we felt that the action points set out were beneficial, we feel it is important to recognise that the majority (52%) of respondents were 26, or over, which may have swayed the data to be of greater use to an older audience. This may have led to the action points prioritising those over 25, misrepresenting the actual needs of young people.
We looked at the different causes of poor mental health in young people and the barriers to accessing support or care, speaking to professionals from the public and charity sector. We also explored the data from the Children & Young People's Survey with staff from Statistics Jersey.
We took part in a workshop, lead by Mind Jersey, to help with exam stress and gained new skills for the future. We ran social media campaigns to promote Positive News.
288 young people took part in our survey which gives us a snap shot of the varied experiences of young people aged 13 to 18. With support from all schools we could achieve a broader picture of the issues and trends. Although our sample size is not large the topic means that these numbers are a cause for concern.
105 136
65
119 127
Reported experiencing issues with poor mental health.
47 chose not to comment
Did not think that the support offered was adequate.
60 chose not to comment
Young people did not know where to access support for their mental health.
24 chose not to comment
Felt that Covid-19 had negatively affected their mental health.
36 chose not to comment
Thought that education and awareness was the most important area for the JYP to explore.
116 supported improvements to facilities The Jersey Young People's Survey 2021, was also a useful source of information.
Survey Findings
Young people who contributed to the survey suggested that they would like to see the following improvements in schools and in the community:
"More extra curricular
"Allow people more places to open up activities."
and more services such as drop-in
lounges."
"Talking to an expert in psychology."
"More PSHE
lessons, " I believe it is important we de-stigmatize more suffering with mental health issues by hearing
counsellors from, and being taught by, individuals who have in suffered with personal mental health struggles. In
schools, effort to increase relatability, and therefore assemblies..." improve the stigmatization."
"How to be able
"There needs to be more awareness to talk." about it and more awareness of who
people can go to if they're struggling."
"Follow-ups would be helpful. If there is a problem, it won't be fixed immediately, which I feel needs to be
"The education and recognised."
awareness on mental health
in Jersey is atrocious, so little is done to help and
to recognise the problems, more children need to
be made aware of mental health issues and those
with them must be helped effectively."
"Educate teachers."
We created an up to date information leaflet that was shared with schools, youth projects and through social media to help young people access support and tackle stigma.
We ran social media campaigns to support young people at difficult times as well as offering positive news stories.
We also created videos that can be accessed through the JYP YouTube channel
Causes & Barriers
We took time to talk to professionals from different sectors such as CAMHS, Statistics Jersey, YES, Mind Jersey for insights into care and delivery. This helped us to better understand causes of poor mental health in young people. Some of these echoes international tends.
We also looked at possible barriers to accessing support and services.
6 Ways to Wellbeing
During our campaign work we also took time to look after our own mental health and tried activities that linked to the six ways to wellbeing.
Stay Active Care for the Planet Connect with Others Team building activities Tree planting in Bilbao, Working together and with the JYS Outdoor sponsoring fruit shrubs meeting regularly for Learning team. at Grow, & planting herbs campaign meetings.
at QSJAC.
Take Notice
Taking a moment to look at the pebbles and seascape at St Ouen and enjoy an ice cream.
Keep Learning
Finding out about human rights and the work of Lord Cashman.
Give
At the Queen's Silver Jubille Activity Centre we practiced Life Skills, cooked and shared food.
Reccomendations for the States Assembly...
The JYP had previously stated that Ministers, and the States Assembly, should take note of their recommendations when making decisions that affect young people in the community.
- Listen to what people have to say
- Put a lot of time, effort and funds into mental health facilities
- Focus on initiatives to reduce stigma and raise awareness
- Consider the actual needs of young people
In addition to these points the Jersey Youth Parliament request that the States Assembly consider their final recommendations.
A fit for purpose Children's Mental Health Strategy with input from young people
Investment in services and care, ensuring funding is spent where it is needed
Ongoing reduction of waiting times for support post Covid 19 Age-appropriate admissions care with therapeutic intervention
Develop inpatient services and care where young people are not isolated from friends and family networks
Continuity of care and a better journey through mental health services
Tackle recruitment and retention problems for professionals working in mental health services
Update the Jersey PSHE curriculum to include better knowledge of mental health and wellbeing
Ensure that young people know how to access support
States Chamber Q&A
Deputy Karen Wilson , Minister for Health & Social
Services asked the JYP "Build Trust" "What do you think is the most single important
thing that we can do to help people understand
the issues around mental health and mental
illness more?"
"People being able to share their stories first hand with those who
write policy, legislation "I think changing the curriculum to
and curriculum because involve more discussion around
they know best about mental health and discuss their issues
what they are going not just with councillors or therapists
through. If there is a way but with their family, their friends or
to get more young anybody they trust."
people offering input into the mental health strategy, that would be beneficial to everybody."
"I'm interested in your views. Do you think we should have open access in terms of being able
to access support?"
JYP "I think there should be open access for young people to get support because I feel that some people don't have trust in the services at the
moment. If there is a way that we can help people
return to services, that would be good."
Deputy Steve Luce asked the JYP which of their three recommendations they might prioritise.
"In patient services because Robin Ward is not the right environment, it is a medical ward with no therapeutic interventions. In Orchard House, where some young people are sent, is not the right place either. There needs to be a different space for young people with needs."
Deputy Barbara Ward asked the group, "If young people can get to their own school councillor, would that be of a benefit, rather than wait for a referral and go to a centre? Not a replacement but as a compliment."
JYP "Yes, I can see that there would be a need for more qualified therapists and councilors in schools as it is really an emergency. If you leave it too late it can get worse and worse for a young person."
JYP "From an Scandinavian study they have mental health professionals in schools and have had positive results. Prevention is better than a cure. If we can bring in more staff who are qualified, up skill the councilors already in
schools that would be beneficial so that people don't reach
that stage of needing more complex support."
Questions in the States Chamber...
Deputy Ina Gardiner Deputy Catherine Curtis expressed
acknowledged the importance of an interest in the survey that the
different departments working JYP carried out. It was shared with
together such as Health & schools and posted online for
Education.
young people to take part who
were aged 13+.
"We have worked with CAMHS to see what steps have been undertaken to improve the service and they are doing great work so far. To rebuild they should continue to make improvements, as they are doing, to a point at which
people are then happy with the service. Once you get one or two people happy with a service they will spread that to their friends, and so on."
Deputy Karen Wilson , Minister
for Health & Social Services
Wondered if peer support might "Continuity of care, be an approach that can be when somebody goes further explored. through the service,
there are many barriers that they meet. If you
can remove the barriers, We have been looking at Peer Support and it was
such as recruiting staff, part of our original presentation to the previous
you can start to rebuild States Assembly. The JYP have explored work
that foundation of trust." undertaken in Grainville School where students
can take an ASDAN short course to support
"Continue to reduce others. We have also worked to extend a pilot
waiting lists." program in an additional secondary school and
the Education Group will be able to give more
insight into this work.
Conclusion
As we attempt to rebuild ourselves as individuals and as a society, post Covid19, in an island where everybody has a stake, where prosperity is fairly shared and where we protect and improve the institutions that bind us together.
Maintaining good mental health is a serious challenge affecting us all, north and south, old and young, rich and poor, those who work and those who cant. Poor mental health is a problem that can strike anyone and undermines the well being of our island. It is a widespread issue and you'd think it is something that we would all talk about so that nobody feels alone, so that nobody feels different, or at least every politician would feel obliged to act, or that we'd be falling over ourselves to find solutions, but that doesn't seem to happen. Only in emergencies do we tend to talk about the situation.
Mental health is an economic challenge holding back prosperity. We cannot forget about people's quality of life. If we want politics that talks directly to the challenges that our people face in their everyday lives we cannot allow the silence to continue within our society.
Having heard our presentation, and considered our report, we hope you will take all of our recommendations into account as you head into this next term. We hope our recommendations have affected your opinions and goals for the next four years. This is a great opportunity to act on Climate Change, Mental Health and reform Education. We hope you will do so making a positive impact on young people. We appreciate your support and that you have taken the
time to listen to us.
Since this is a new States Assembly we want to stress loud and clear that children aren't just the future but they are the present.
Consider our voices and act.
If you have children of your own think for them, think for us, and think for Jersey's future and don't forget one fifth of our entire island.
Acknowledgements
We would like to extend our thanks to the organisations and individuals who have supported us in this campaign.
Gary Burgess
Jess Dunsden
YES Project, Jersey Youth Service
Youthful Minds Group & Amy Hall , Youthful Minds, Jersey Nicole Maltwood, Eagle Labs
Lucy Layton & Deborah, Jersey Heritage PC Colley & Inspector Williams, SOJ Police
Daniela Raffio, Mental Health Strategy
The YES Project
Terry Stevens, Digital Jersey &
The Digital Leadership Program 2021
The Health & Social Services Scrutiny Panel
Town Centre Planner
Alexa Munn, Statistics Jersey
Debbie Reeve, IOD
JYP Volunteers