Celebrating youth voice 23 July 2015 Celebrating youth voice

Celebrating Youth Voice was attended by young people and adults from youth participation groups in Bristol and the surrounding areas. Groups and organisations represented at Celebrating Youth Voice included:

• 
  Young Healthwatch
  
• 
  Young People’s Reference Group (co-facilitated by Healthwatch Bristol and Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group)
  
• 
  Mentality (Off the Record)
  
• 
  Young Carers (South Gloucestershire and Bristol Carers’ Support Centre)
  
• 
  Bristol City Youth Council
  
• 
  Triple A
  
• 
  New Fosseway Testers
  
• 
  South Gloucestershire Youth Board
  
• 
  Brook
  
• 
  NHS England Youth Forum
  
• 
  Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership
  
• 
  SARI
  
• 
  Children in Need (BBC Bristol)
  
• 
  People in Health West of England
  
• 
  Bristol Children’s Hospital
  
• 
  Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group
  

• 
  share information about their group and projects;
  
• 
  plan how to work together in the future;
  
• 
  act to amplify young people’s voices in Bristol .
  

The first part of the event invited youth groups to give a presentation about themselves and the projects they are currently working on.

Young Healthwatch

• 
  Young Healthwatch is part of Healthwatch Bristol.
  
• 
  Young Healthwatch wants to find out about young people’s experiences of health and social care services and help improve them.
  
• 
  One of the activities Young Healthwatch is involved with is the Young People’s Reference Group (YPRG). The YPRG is working with Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to ensure young people are involved in the re-commissioning of Children’s Community Health Services in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.
  
• 
  The YPRG has:
  

• 
  designed the service pathway included in the Involvement Document for the re-commissioning;
  
• 
  given feedback on CAMHS and school nurses face-to-face with commissioners;
  
• 
  developed the ideas and story board for an animation to promote the consultation phase of the re-commissioning;
  
• 
  recorded their voices for the animation;
  
• 
  given their opinions on the development of the consultation website being produced for the re-commissioning.
  

• 
  Young Healthwatch volunteers wanted to host an event for lots of youth participation groups from Bristol so that they could share what they are doing and work together in the future. For this reason, Celebrating Youth Voice was held.
  

• 
  a summary report of our Young Healthwatch work in 2014 and 2015 including what we did, what children and young people told Healthwatch about health and social care services and issues, and how their voice is influencing services
  

• 
  the (fun and colourful, I promise!) report of our #YHWBeingMe event
  

• 
  our Young Healthwatch website page with videos, interactive You Said, We Did and much more!
  

Mentality

• 
  Mentality is a group run by Off the Record.
  
• 
  Mentality is soon to launch their latest campaign ‘My Mental Health is Not an Adjective’. The campaign includes posters and videos. Mentality showed everyone at Celebrating Youth Voice two of their videos and a selection of their posters. They then asked people for feedback. Comments included:
  

• 
  “powerful”
  
• 
  “will challenge people who use mental health words inappropriately”
  
• 
  “not about telling people they are wrong, just making people think”
  
• 
  “honest as it’s real people talking about personal experience without being aggressive or shaming people”
  
• 
  “makes you think about language around mental health”
  
• 
  “helps people understand mental health illnesses and what they actually are”
  
• 
  “videos are really well made, good quality cinematography”
  

E: laura@otrbristol.org.uk

• 
  Healthy Body, Healthy Mind is one of the BCYC’s campaigns.
  
• 
  Healthy Body, Healthy Mind aims to: challenge stigma around mental health, promote early intervention, get people talking about mental health, raise awareness of positive mental health in schools.
  
• 
  BCYC will be working with Fixers to create a video about their campaign.
  
• 
  BCYC wants to host a conference attended by head teachers of Bristol’s schools.
  
• 
  BCYC aims to have a Healthy Body, Healthy Mind Champion in each school in Bristol.
  
• 
  The speaker from BCYC said: “mental health is the epidemic of our generation.”
  
• 
  BCYC is working with the Youth Select Committee who recently presented in Parliament.
  

E: bristolyouthparliament@mail.com

• 
  New Fosseway Testers is a youth participation group meeting at New Fosseway School (a school for young people with learning disabilities).
  
• 
  The group is facilitated by Mike Lewis (Barnardo’s), Jeni McElwee, Lois Connelly and Auron Newman (North Bristol NHS Trust Specialist Service for Children with Learning Disabilities).
  
• 
  New Fosseway Testers has made a video about their group and this was shown at Celebrating Youth Voice.
  
• 
  The young people who are part of New Fosseway Testers like the group because they get to see friends, laugh a lot, do art activities and meet other peers. They have reviewed leaflets and letters and have sat on interview panels to influence staff recruitment into the service.
  
• 
  New Fosseway Testers would like to develop links with other groups and schools.
  
• 
  A new group will be formed in September at Kingsweston School to extend the range of voices heard.
  
• 
  The young people attending Celebrating Youth Voice asked how they could make their own groups more accessible to the young people in New Fosseway Testers and were keen to go and visit the New Fosseway Testers.
  

E: Auron.Newman@nbt.nhs.uk

Following the above presentations, attendees were invited to have lunch and get to know each other. Lunch gave the opportunity for people to make connections with others and discuss topics of interest. There was lots of discussion about mental health services and people’s differing experiences of accessing and using them. People made links between projects and organisations and swapped contact details. Young people and staff from organisations chatted as equals.

Throughout the day attendees had the opportunity to share their feedback and ideas on posters. The comments written on the posters included:

• 
  discrimination
  
• 
  internalised racism
  

These are a few of my favourite things….

• 
  orthotics
  
• 
  talking
  

Tweet me! My social media details are….

• 
  Young Healthwatch
  

Facebook: Young Healthwatch

• 
  Mentality
  

E: www.otrbristol.org.uk

T: 08088089120

Text: 0789688001

• 
  Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP)
  

• 
  BBC Children in Need
  

• 
  Bristol City Youth Council
  

• 
  Nicole at Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group:
  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicolezographou

Also on display were some of the blog posts shared on the Healthwatch Bristol ‘Our Stories’ blog. The blog posts were all written by young people and adults and were themed around mental health and wellbeing. To read the blog posts, visit the ‘Our Stories’ blog using the following link:

W: www.healthwatchbristol.co.uk/blog

Discussion

After lunch the attendees were asked to generate a list of priority topics that the Health and Wellbeing Board should focus on. They were as follows:

• 
  stretched youth mental health services;
  
• 
  community groups for young parents;
  
• 
  fewer entry/qualification criteria for health and social care services so more people can get support;
  
• 
  budget cuts to health and social care services;
  
• 
  homelessness;
  
• 
  mental health training for all professionals;
  
• 
  consider spiritual needs as part of wellbeing.
  

Re-commissioning of Children’s Community Health Services

Bristol CCG showed a draft of the animation they will use to promote the Consultation Phase of Children’s Community Health Services. They asked that when the consultation is launched, everyone commented on the services and encouraged others to do the same.

E: Nicole.Zographou@bristolccg.nhs.uk

Triple A

A young person who is a member of BCYC shared information about another group, Triple A, of which she is a member. Triple A is an organisation that supports people with disabilities to achieve their goals.

The attendees were then asked to choose between a workshop facilitated by Bristol CCG and a workshop facilitated by Bristol Children’s Hospital.

Re-commissioning of Children’s Community Health Services – website development

The Communications Team from Bristol CCG led a workshop asking for young people to help them develop the website through which people will be able to give their feedback on the service specifications for children’s community health services. The CCG want the website to be accessible and interesting to children, young people and their families. For more information contact Nicole Zographou.

E: Nicole.Zographou@bristolccg.nhs.uk

Bristol Children’s Hospital – resources for patients

Bristol Children’s Hospital led a workshop asking young people to develop resources that could be given to children and young people who are patients at the Bristol Children’s Hospital to make their stay more enjoyable. For more information contact Sara Reynolds.

E: Sara.Reynolds@UHBristol.nhs.uk

Based on the information shared during the day, the attendees created a list of future actions. They are:

• 
  help Bristol City Youth Council/the Youth Select Committee with their Mental Health activities in 2016 – BCYC to share details when they have them;
  
• 
  support Mentality’s event on 10 October 2015 which will celebrate World Mental Health Day and launch their new campaign;
  
• 
  give your feedback during the Consultation Phase on the re-commissioning of Children’s Community Health Services via the Bristol CCG website;
  
• 
  follow each other on Twitter and Facebook.
  

The following organisations and groups who attended Celebrating Youth Voice asked for their contact details to be shared with attendees and other Young Healthwatch contacts:

NHS England Youth Forum

Twitter: @NHSYouthForum

E: liz.rabone@bbc.co.uk

W: http://goo.gl/w8fpa9

W: http://goo.gl/1kNv9F

T: 0117900 2373 Mobile: 07768596971

E: Nicole.Zographou@bristolccg.nhs.uk

Evaluation of Celebrating Youth Voice

In answer to the question ‘What did you enjoy most about Celebrating Youth Voice’, attendees said:

• 
  “Hearing from other youth groups”
  
• 
  “Presentation from mentality was really really educative. I learnt something new ‘My mental health is not an adjective’. Trust me I will never use OCD inappropriately! Thank you!”
  
• 
  “Giving young people a chance to speak about what they are doing.”
  
• 
  “The people, or the food!”
  
• 
  “All the different companies and roles”
  
• 
  “Speaking to a wide group of people.”
  
• 
  “Getting to know other organisations.”
  
• 
  “The activities because they were fun.”
  
• 
  “Meeting new people and learning about their work.”
  
• 
  “Loads of different groups.”
  
• 
  “Talking at lunch.”
  
• 
  “Watching Mentality video and the chance to hear about other opportunities in the groups and projects.”
  
• 
  “Listening to different youth organisations on what they do, mainly the Mentality, as it made me more aware of the things I say and its [e]ffect on others.”
  
• 
  “Sharing ideas and opinions.”