Listen Up - Social Welfare Portal

listenup!16 | Chapter 2Project background, aims,methodology & limitationsThis report is the result of informationgathered from the Mental HealthFoundation’s project looking atservices working with young peoplewith mental health and emotionalproblems. The project had two phases:Youth Crisis I and Listen Up.The first phase, Youth Crisis IIn 2002, the Mental Health Foundation (the‘Foundation’) initiated the Youth Crisis Project. Thefirst stage of the project, ‘Youth Crisis I’, was a twoyearconsultation project to find out from youngpeople what they wanted from services when theywere experiencing mental health problems. Theconsultation was hosted by four organisations: Mindin Brighton and Hove; Barnardo’s Marlborough RoadPartnership in Cardiff; Streetwise in Newcastle; andthe Glasgow office of the Mental Health Foundation.Almost 200 young people were consulted as part ofYouth Crisis I, culminating in the creation of a ‘wishlist’ for developing the ‘ideal’ mental health servicefor young people (see Appendix 1). Some of the keyfindings of Youth Crisis I included the need for: fasttrackaccess to treatment and care; the opportunityfor each young person to build a rapport with oneperson to guide them through services; greatersensitivity from service professionals in times ofcrisis; alternatives to medication; and preventativestrategies and access to resources prior to crisis point.The second phase, Listen UpAs a result of the Youth Crisis I consultation, theFoundation decided to set up a second phaseof the project working with eight ‘partner sites’,voluntary organisations in the UK who were willingto develop their services in line with the ‘wish list’.This part of the project began in 2004 and ran untilSeptember 2007. The main focus was on youngpeople aged between 16 and 25, although agelimits did vary from place to place.This part of the project focused on exploring youngpeople’s actual experiences of using services ingreater depth. Participants were asked to explainwhat parts of the service they attended worked wellfor them, in terms of the environment of the serviceand the staff working there, and what they felt couldbe improved in services to better meet their needs.