Young people's survey on mental health

10/12/14 . Blog

Young people need to tell the government and NHS about mental health.

Our Men's Health Manifesto calls for action on boys mental health, improvements to PSHE education and action to tackle stigma.

The Department of Health and NHS England are working with YoungMinds, a charity campaigning for better mental health for children and young people, to find out young people’s views about mental health help and support. The views they gather from young people will be used to help improve:

How informed young people are about mental health - so they know how to keep themselves mentally healthy and how to get help if they need it
How young people are supported with their mental health in schools and other places- so they can get help more easily and quickly
Mental health services for young people- so they really meet the needs of all the different young people who might use them

Speak out about mental health services

It’s really important that young people speak out about these issues - it’s the best way to make sure that decision makers listen and design the best services possible for young people.

If you are aged up to 25 you can share your views in this short survey that is being run by YoungMinds. It will take 10-20 minutes and it’s for everyone- you don’t need to have used a mental health service before and it’s important young people of all different genders; ethnicities; sexual orientations; backgrounds and with all different experiences like being in care; or being a young carer take part so that your needs are listened to as well.

You can also enter a free prize draw at the end of the survey to win a £200 of Love to Shop vouchers-details are on the blog.

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

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