Listen Up - Social Welfare Portal

listenup!12 | Chapter 1of comprehensive and equitable CAMHS acrossWales” as set out in the CAMHS strategy Everybody’sBusiness (Welsh Assembly, 2001). The review willinclude looking at current service provision, planningand commissioning, and collecting information onthe experiences of children and young people aswell as their carers on accessing and using services.In Scotland, The Mental Health of Children andYoung People: A Framework for Promotion,Prevention and Care was published in 2005 and isa multi-agency framework aimed at supporting anintegrated approach to the planning and deliveryof services (Scottish Executive, 2005). The deliveryplan for services, Delivering Mental Health outlinesa commitment to implement this framework by2015 and states children and young people are apriority (Scottish Executive, 2006). There is a targetset of 2008 for the allocation of a named mentalhealth link person in every school and basic mentalhealth training for all those looking after childrenand young people in care. A further target of 2009is set for halving the number of children and youngpeople’s admissions to adult wards. This builds on theprinciples of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment)(Scotland) Act 2003 to ensure sufficient services andaccommodation for children and young people whoare admitted into hospital.Mental Health Foundation’s WorkThe Mental Health Foundation recognises that themental health and emotional wellbeing of childrenand young people is an urgent priority for serviceprovision, policy and research. This is reflected by thenumber of publications it has produced in the lastdecade that have sought to understand how best todevelop services that serve the mental health needsof this group.Bright Futures (Mental Health Foundation, 1999)reported on a three-year programme of work thatexamined the factors affecting children and youngpeople’s mental health and emotional development.Contributions to the report included over 1,000pieces of written evidence, alongside testimonyfrom relevant professionals in education, health andsocial care, as well as academics, representatives ofvoluntary sector agencies, parents and young peoplethemselves.A key finding of the report was the importance ofearly intervention and the role of families, schools,primary health care and voluntary agencies inincreasing resilience to mental health problemsin childhood and adolescence. Bright Futures alsoidentified four groups of children and young peoplewho were particularly vulnerable to developingmental health problems – those with emotionaland behavioural problems; homeless young people;looked-after children; and young people in the youthjustice system. Subsequent work arising from BrightFutures also established that a significant gap inservice provision exists for young people betweenthe ages of 16 and 25 years, and their views wereheard in the report Turned Upside Down (MentalHealth Foundation, 2001).One of the key findings of Turned Upside Downwas that neither children’s nor adult services wereequipped to provide adequate care for young peoplegoing through the transition from childhood toadulthood. The implication of this finding is thatby the time a young person is identified by adultservices, they may have already developed severeand enduring mental health problems, which couldhave been prevented or reduced if managed sooner.The 45 young people involved in the project madea number of suggestions concerning this issue andargued strongly that the involvement of service usersand ex-users in developing and running serviceswould go some way in helping to create servicesthat are more appropriate to their specific needs.They also emphasised the benefit of peer support– service users or ex-users of services can befriend,advise and support young people in crisis.