The importance and benefits of youth participation in mental health settings from the perspective of the headspace Gosford Youth Alliance in Australia

Abstract

Objectives: Young people's participation in decision making that affects them is increasingly recognised and valued as a right. Youth participation in mental health settings is fundamental to service design and delivery, and is beneficial for the young people as well as the organisation. Headspace recognises the many benefits of youth participation with its national and local youth participation initiatives. In 2013, headspace Gosford in Australia established its current youth participation model, called the Youth Alliance (YA), consisting of 12 young people. These young people contribute ideas and opinions around service design and delivery, and participate in a range of activities. Method: This paper presents the findings of a focus group conducted with the YA immediately following recruitment. All 12 young people participated in a two hour focus group which sought to identify the key reasons these young people joined the YA, and what they hope to achieve in their capacity of YA consultants. Results: The two main reasons participants joined the YA are to help 'overcome barriers to help seeking and ensure young people get the support they need' and 'to build confidence, social skills and make new friends'. The barriers to help seeking identified by the participants are consistent with those outlined in the literature.

Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing

“…348 Attitudes of adults towards young people and their capabilities, together with young people’s lack of confidence in engagement processes, are a common barrier. 349 Attitudinal barriers commonly arise from cultural contexts where young people are perceived as subordinate to adults, that exclude young women, and that further stigmatise socially marginalised groups. 350,351 Inflexible bureaucratic arrangements, insufficient investment to support ongoing engagement, and restrictive policies, such as limiting the participation of adolescents in research, might be further limiting factors.…”

Client and parent feedback on a Youth Mental Health Service: The importance of family inclusive practice and working with client preferences

“…; Ivancic et al . ), and the extent to which young people engage with services is strongly influenced by the views of parents about mental health service/treatment (Coates and Howe ). As such, services that actively engage parents in the care of young people are more likely to retain young people in care and achieve positive outcomes (Ingram et al .…”

Evaluating Youth Drop-In Programs: The Utility of Process Evaluation Methods

“…A participatory approach to evaluation was utilized that involved the execu tive director and board members, who worked with the evaluation consultants to ensure that the evaluation design was based on process and outcome measures that they considered important. We believe that participatory evaluation methods may be effectively used to substantiate the practice skills, knowledge, and competencies of those responsible for program evaluation ( Cousins, Whitmore, & Shulha, 2013 ;Fetterman & Wandersman, 2005, 2007Grinnell, Gabor, & Unrau, 2012 ;Mertens, 2010 ;Patton, 2008Patton, , 2012Smith, 2010 ). We contend that this practice note adds a much-needed "real-world" example of how process evaluations can eff ectively support youth drop-in programming by identifying the specific evaluation chal lenges we experienced in this neighbourhood youth centre.…”

“…There is also a benefit to establishing relationships with youth who are not able or willing to attend youth programs on a regular basis but who may be willing to engage with a service provider on their own terms without having to commit to structured programs. This is a time where one's identity formation and self-perception are of critical importance, but youth involvement with traditional health-care services is often met with reluctance ( Coates & Howe, 2014).…”