Listen Up - Social Welfare Portal

listenup!Chapter 1 | 13A number of key themes run across all the projectssupported by the Foundation in this area. These include:• The need for a holistic approachA broad consensus emerged from these researchprojects advocating a preventative/earlyintervention, holistic approach to mental healthand emotional wellbeing.• Better inter-agency workingBright Futures revealed that some young peoplewere in contact with several agencies, althoughwithout a specific problem that was serious enoughto warrant action by any particular one. Alternatively,young people could be under the care of severalagencies at once, dealing with many professionals,each overseeing different strands of their lives, whichcan be confusing, frustrating and isolating.• Young person participation in the way servicesare run and developedListening to what young people have to say aboutservices is fundamental to developing new andexisting services. As well as being a part of theMental Health Foundation’s general policy to makeservice users central to the research process, theinvolvement of young people is also an attempt tocounteract the wider lack of a young person’s voicein the development of services.The Mental Health Foundation and CamelotFoundation’s national enquiry into self-harm amongyoung people (2006) found that health, educationand social care professionals were not receiving thetraining or guidance they needed to support youngpeople who self-harm. The research shows that selfharmis related to underlying emotional or mentaldistress, and therefore a comprehensive self-harmstrategy requires both a broad, generic focus onpromoting positive wellbeing, and behaviour-specificinformation, training and intervention.