Young people in mental health crisis: We’re taking action to improve our care
One of the biggest impacts of the pandemic has been on the mental health of children and young people. This has resulted in a huge increase in demand for services to support young people experiencing mental health crisis. As a result, pressure on local child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and on hospitals, including their emergency departments and paediatric wards, has increased.
At Newham Hospital, we’re working directly with young people, their families and partner organisations to understand how we can improve and better join-up the mental health care we provide these young people when they present at our emergency department and or are admitted to our Rainbow Ward.
“We want to do more to help these children and young people and to do it better,” explains Sarah Khan, strategic mental health lead for Newham Hospital. “Joint working is essential to achieving this – working directly with children and young people, with families and with partner organisations.”
To date, the project – a collaboration between Newham Hospital, East London Foundation Trust and London Borough of Newham – has involved a series of workshops with experts by experience (young people and families), and with local, regional and national partners.
“The workshops with experts by experience were particularly powerful,” says Sarah. “They were incredibly generous in sharing their experiences from a time in their lives that had been very difficult and painful. Their reflections on what we could do to improve the experiences of young people and parents in the future have been shared with local partners and are the key thing driving our plans for the future.”
The priorities for change identified in these workshops include improving the training available to our staff (clinical and non-clinical) when supporting young people in mental health crisis and their families, improving the environment in which young people are assessed when they are experiencing crisis and ensuring that care plans are coproduced with young people so that they experience their admission as an empowering experience.
Laiba, a young person involved in the project said: “I was privileged to take part in this workshop– it was an excellent opportunity for me to share my opinion and views on how young people experiencing mental health crisis can be better supported at the hospital.
“It also helped me understand why my care perhaps wasn't as good as it could be, and how my experience can help others receive better care in future. The fact that Sarah and Alan listened to each of us individually really helped and encouraged us to come up with solutions. The follow-up helped too –we could see the notes taken and had the chance to edit it if needed, so we knew we had been heard. I’m really glad I took part and hopefully we will see more improvements at Newham Hospital and beyond off the back of this workshop. Thank you for making it happen.”
Sabrina, a mum who took part in the parent workshop, emphasised how important it is that young people and their families are shown compassion at a time of mental health crisis and how the right care can have a hugely positive impact in building trust and engaging with the right services to enable recovery.
She described receiving brilliant support when she brought her son to Newham Hospital, which made her feel she could trust NHS services to support him with his mental health needs. “Whilst battling my sense of trust and emotions which had been shattered during my son's crisis situation and what we were going through as a family, the team on Rainbow Ward gave me a sense belonging which strengthened me as an individual and a parent. I was supported with much warmth and understanding.”
Partner organisations involved in the care of children and young people with mental health needs joined a subsequent workshop to hear the key messages from young people and their families, share knowledge and perspectives from their areas of work and jointly agree priorities for change
“There were at least seven partner organisations at the workshop with nearly 40 attendees overall, so it felt very collaborative,” says Sarah. “Doing this workshop helped us think about how we can continue to really work together and learn from each other to improve care. And it was great to hear the representatives from the London and national teams remark on the strength of joint working in Newham.”
The improvement work identified from these workshops will be taken forward in the coming months, ensuring links with local and national work happening in this area.
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