Young people tackling increasing levels of self- harm

Regional charity Student Life has responded to the latest findings of the Healthwatch Suffolk survey ‘My Health, Our Future’ by reiterating that young people’s mental health support should continue to be driven by young people themselves.

The latest Healthwatch survey is the third report of a series that has been exploring the views of over 26,000 young people aged 11 – 19 in Suffolk. This year, almost 12,000 young people took part in a lesson plan and survey across 16 schools and colleges.  Data shows that young people are facing increasing challenges to their mental health and that their subjective wellbeing is lower than the national average.  A range of factors were explored that are causing young people to worry about their wellbeing and focused on issues such as self-esteem, body image, self-harm, bullying, mental health education and young people’s experiences of finding help.

As well as offering a robust and unique approach to mental health awareness in the 40 schools and colleges that currently collaborate with Student Life in Suffolk, it is the subject of self-harm that the young person led charity is focusing on, through a commission by the NHS in the county to produce a school/college workshop on the subject.

“In the 2 years that our Mental Health Ambassador project has been evolving, we have been inundated with young people who want to receive training and then offer peer support within their year groups” explained Student Life’s CEO Richard Stewart.  “The latest statistics on self-harm from our partners at Healthwatch is concerning but not surprising and we are working hard with education settings throughout the county to train their young people – and staff – in mental health awareness; providing the necessary skills to spot early warning signs of mental ill health and reduce the stigma of speaking up and speaking out.  We are still a little way off agreeing with the NHS what the final delivery of our self-harm workshop will look like.  We appreciate that our ground-breaking, young people led approach to addressing the prevalence of this coping strategy is radical, but we are determined to show that it should be the young people themselves who are best placed to lead on strategy”.

To find out more information please visit www.student-life.co