Minority voices: Research into the access and acceptability of ... - MMC

Good practice example 2 - Bedfordshire’s Campaign against living miserably (CALM)In December 1997, in Manchester,the Department of Healthlaunched CALM as a pilot totackle depression among youngmen. The image and promotionalstrategy used support from themusic, sport and entertainmentindustries to target young menwith messages about mentalhealth. The campaign message isto encourage young men aged 15-25 to ‘open up’. In March 2000,the campaign was rolled out toMerseyside and Cumbria, and toBedfordshire in May 2001.CALM is ‘brought to young men on their ownterritory’ and aims to provide a service that isappealing to young men and in touch with their needsin order to: Combat the stigma of depression. Provide a point of contact/interventionduring crises. Generate awareness of services within the zone. Increase the number of young men accessingservices within the zone.CALM’s services include a helpline, newsletter, websiteand database of local and national services andagencies. A key activity has been targeting the media;for example, the use of underground radio stations,hip-hop and garage concerts, also the placing ofinformation about the campaign, depression and waysto deal with it, in new contexts that young people arelikely to access such as music/lifestyle magazines,sports programmes, cinema adverts, bus tickets andbus shelter advertisements.The helpline is staffed by a pool of 25 highly trainedprofessional advisors. The lines are open 5pm-3am,365 days per year. Calls are confidential and free(from landlines).Good practice example 3 - London Borough of CroydonCroydon has a well establishedChildren and Young People’sNetwork. This acts as an activefocus for the voluntary sectorand statutory agencies, whichserve the many minority ethniccommunities in the borough. Anumber of projects and specificservices for Black and minorityethnic young people have beenintegrated within a full range ofmainstream services.These include: The Sahelee project was developed by theAsian Resource Centre of Croydon (ARCC) inpartnership with Croydon Council’s Equalities Unit,supported by the Health Inequalities budget. This oneyearproject was aimed at young Asian womenbetween the ages of 15 and 35, as research hasindicated that the health and well-being of these youngwomen are particularly vulnerable, in part due to thecomplexities and pressures of growing up as a youngAsian woman in Britain. The development workerappointed to the project reviewed current services,establishing why these were not readily accessed andwhat future development women would welcome.The key findings were presented on InternationalWomen’s Day 2004 to a cross-section of individuals,agencies and organisations. Recommendations arebeing finalised on the basis of the findings. A BME communities outreach worker is basedat Off the Record, one of two young people’s selfreferralinformation, counselling and support servicesin Croydon. The previous postholder builtrelationships with BME groups in Croydon andestablished consultative links with local agencies,networks and professionals to raise awareness of, andincrease access to, the full range of local mental healthservices for BME young people. As a member of theTier 3 CAMHS team and a trained family therapist, shecarried out group work with young people, and trainedcounsellors in work with BME young people. As partof a mental health team she worked on a pilot projectin five secondary schools, where group work andteacher training were carried out for young peoplereferred by the school and parents for problems suchas bullying and eating disorders. The new postholder iscontinuing to strengthen links and developprogrammes of work with BME groups. The Directorof Off the Record is also a member of the localCAMHS strategic planning group. Croydon African Caribbean FamilyOrganisation (CACFO) has a service levelagreement with the local education authority (LEA) tosupport a designated number of excluded Black pupils,the vast majority of whom have been successfullyreintegrated into mainstream education. Aside from aspecial school headed by a teacher from the Blackcommunity, a Black counsellor works with the pupils(continued on next page)08