In December 2024, member of the Somerset Youth Parliament Advisory Group, Lara, presented at the Devon Mental Health Champions workshop. Below she shares her experiences and thoughts.
Last month I attended the Devon Mental Health Champions workshop. I recently worked on the What’s Out There project for Young Devon, and was attending to present my work to an NHS leaders group, and ended up staying for the majority of the day to hear the other presentations with an opportunity to add my thoughts regarding young people in Somerset as well as Devon areas.
I heard some really interesting stuff! Claire Richardson, who supports the Devon Youth Council, presented just after me and showed a survey the young people in Devon had created. The survey covered a range of topics, all under the umbrella of mental health support in Devon. A few years back, I created a very similar survey for Somerset Youth Parliament, so it was very interesting to compare the results, as they were largely comparable, with a lot of similar issues.
I think my presentation went really well, and I received lots of compliments as well as interest in the project afterwards! I was able to show a series of videos that I and three other young people have been working on for What’s Out There. We created them with the aim of supporting young people to navigate their mental health. We covered three main points: where to go for support; managing your mental health and reducing the stigma around mental health. I think we did a great job and I’m proud of these bite size, snappy videos. They’re fun and interesting to watch but hopefully deliver the information we intended
There’s some great stuff to watch, click on the link
There were also thought-provoking organisations at the event, which all supported young people in some way including Parental Minds, Sound Communities and young Devon themselves. And, although the workshops focussed on young people that were in care or hospital care specifically, it was fascinating to hear different perspectives of the people that worked in those situations with young people. I’m so pleased I got the opportunity to go!
What do you think of the mental health support for young people in your local area?
Lara
Somerset Youth Parliament’s Advisory Group
Did you know that Somerset Youth Parliament isn’t just it’s elected members? Any young person in Somerset aged 10-25 years can become a member of the Somerset Youth Parliament Advisory Group.
For more information about becoming a member of the Somerset Youth Parliament Advisory Group and to join, visit our Join Us page.
