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

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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
Elements of good practiceThese three examplesdemonstrate the keyfeatures of good practicefor the strategic planningand commissioning ofservices for themental health of BMEyoung people:1 Careful and expertassessment of the mentalhealth needs of BME youngpeople in the local area,carried out jointly withlocal BME communitiesand with the full range oflocal services and agenciesthat work with childrenand young people.2 Assessing mental healthneeds as part of otherneeds and developingstrategies that mean thatmental health needs can beidentified and addressed ina non-stigmatising manner,along with more generalhealth, social care andeducation needs.3Involving the voluntarysector in strategicplanning and supportingand empowering theseorganisations to play amore substantial rolein the future.4Working with BMEorganisations and youngpeople in such a way as toengage their interest andoffer help - for example,working in music andsports venues and offeringhelp with employment andtraining, support that isseen as of more immediatevalue than identifying andmeeting mental healthneeds.This kind of intensivework and investment maybe necessary before atrusted and balancedworking relationship canbe established betweenthose who commissionservices and those whowould benefit from them.It may be necessary to setup and maintain specificprojects in order fully togain the participation ofparticular groups atrisk, such as youngAsian women.5 As part of the process ofworking with BMEcommunities, greaterawareness of mental healthneeds is fostered amongthese communities andservice planners andproviders gain a greaterawareness of the needs ofBME young people. Specifictraining may be indicated.Issues of concernand with parents on issues such as fixed termexclusion, permanent exclusions, secondary schooltransfer, school-home liaison, difficult relationships,homework support and quality of education. CACFOcarries out a range of work with the local AfricanCaribbean community, majoring on educationinitiatives. This work is informed by considerableinsight into community concerns and because of thetrust and influence it had gained within the community,can act as a conduit for communication with statutoryagencies. Creative Recreation Education AdventureTraining Enterprise (CREATE) is a mentoring plusscheme for young offenders from hard to reachminority ethnic, asylum seeker and refugeecommunities – funded for 3 years by the Youth JusticeBoard from March 2002. About 30 young people eachyear are matched with a volunteer mentor from withintheir community. Croydon has a number of services for youngrefugees, because the Home Office ImmigrationDepartment is in Croydon and serves as a magnetfor a large number of young refugees, many ofthem unaccompanied.1 The resources and skills requiredeffectively to plan strategically andcommission services for the mentalhealth of BME young people are in shortsupply, especially where particularefforts are required to engage thecommunity.Therefore, good practiceis frequently compromised.2 Shortage of funding to support thenecessary involvement of BMEcommunity groups often also leadsto compromise.3 It is extremely difficult for agencies bothto carry out strategic work withcommissioners and to provide responsiveservices to a local BME community.Again this may be a resource issue, butmay also be related to competingagendas for different BME communities inthe same locality, so that thecommissioning task to meet possiblydiffering needs sensitively and equitablybecomes highly complex.4 Training opportunities to developcompetence in planning services that aresensitive to racial and cultural differencesare not readily available, so that effectivestrategies are not commonly found.09
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Minority VoicesResearch into the ac
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis eighteen-month
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factors that study participants ide
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Study recommendations• The lack o
Page 9 and 10: ! Concerns about the provision of m
Page 11 and 12: 3. CONTEXT OF THE STUDYVarious area
Page 13 and 14: • A measure of general psychiatri
Page 15 and 16: and some minority groups have poore
Page 17 and 18: 4. METHODOLOGYThe study methodThe p
Page 19 and 20: Staff: The interview schedules for
Page 21 and 22: 5. STUDY FINDINGS I: MAPPING OF ACT
Page 23 and 24: In a number of areas attempts to im
Page 25 and 26: 6. STUDY FINDINGS II: YOUNG PEOPLE
Page 27 and 28: ! Awareness of mental health and me
Page 29 and 30: “The therapist I was seeing was A
Page 31 and 32: Suggestions from young people for i
Page 33 and 34: 7. STUDY FINDINGS III: INFORMATION
Page 35 and 36: • High DNA (Did Not Attend) rates
Page 37 and 38: they felt sufficiently supported an
Page 39 and 40: Table 4: Areas of unmet need/defici
Page 41 and 42: • The breakdown of whether some B
Page 43 and 44: 8. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONST
Page 45 and 46: The study recommendations are:• T
Page 47 and 48: Wide-ranging review of the issues c
Page 49 and 50: REFERENCES1 Silvera, M. & Kapasi, R
Page 51 and 52: 69 German, G. (2002). Antiracist st
Page 53 and 54: Minority VoicesA GUIDE TO GOODPRACT
Page 55 and 56: ContentsIntroduction04 The basis f
Page 57 and 58: Meeting NeedsThe level and typeof s
Page 59: Good practice example 1 - Sharing V
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Page 65 and 66: Tier 3 CAMHSIn providing for local
Page 67 and 68: Services targeted on 1) particular
Page 69 and 70: 3) Particular mental health problem
Page 71 and 72: 3.Good practice in service planning
Page 73 and 74: APPENDIX IIAs set out in Delivering
Page 75: This guide to good practice is base
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