Youth Mental Health globally and locally

2 editorials published in last week’s BMJ make bold the harsh reality for many young people finding their way in the economic recession which has reshaped the landscape regarding employment, education and training opportunities. BMJ 2013;347:f5270; BMJ 2013;347:f5612.

In the UK youth unemployment has risen 3x higher than the overall employment rate. High rates of joblessness are associated with increased rates of suicide, especially in men and young people. Job insecurity and  decreased earnings impact on relationships and are associated with increased alcohol consumption (Hawton & Haw, 2013).

Prolonged economic inactivity has profound effects on mental health with depression, alcohol or substance misuse and suicidal attempts significantly increased (Scott et al, 2013).  

It is incumbent on all of us who talk with young people in a professional capacity to be mindful of the external factors which shape so powerfully their inner worlds and impact directly on sense of self and well-being.

Tomorrow  the second International Association of Youth Mental Health opens and there will be a broad and multi-disciplinary discussion and debate on all aspects of youth mental health both nationally and globally.

Follow the discussions on #IAYMH2013

Check out the website www.iaymh2013.com

Best wishes

Jane Roberts

September Blog : La Rentree

Welcome  back to all as we enter  the beginning of the new academic year-  that lovely time of hope and unblemished stationery  which the French call La Rentree.!

Below is a photo of youth health services taken whilst on a brief sojourn in Lille, northern France- you see, even when on hol  youth health is never far from my mind...

I have a few announcements to make.

Firstly, I am delighted to welcome Dr Frances Baawuah as our new Clinical Support Fellow, 

Frances is a GP in South London with several years of clinical experience working at the Well Centre, Streatham.

 She will be working with me on the new RCGP Youth Mental Health Clinical Priority. Frances and I will be meeting our extended group of Stakeholders, from the Voluntary Sector and Collegiate Partners on Sept 25^th. We will be planning our next stage of the priority work programme. Frances will be leading on social media networking  and we will report back as plans develop.

Secondly we will be running a session on Friday 4^th October at RCGP Annual Conference at Harrogate: please join us there ( Session D1, 11.40-12.40).

Thirdly, I would like to  announce a new publications of note:

BMJ 10 minute consultation : Young people who self-harm by cutting

http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5250

Practice . 10 minute consultation

Young people who self harm by cutting

BMJ 2013; 347 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f5250 (Published 30 August 2013)

Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f5250 

Authors

1. Jane H Roberts, general practitioner, clinical senior lecturer, Royal College of General Practitioners youth mental health clinical champion1,
2. Rachel Pryke, general practitioner partner2,
3. Margaret Murphy, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist3,
4. Lucie Russell, director of campaigns, young minds 4

Author Affiliations

1. Correspondence to: J H Roberts jane.roberts@sunderland.ac.uk

Rachel and I are very proud of our publication, and delighted  to have worked with one of the stakeholders: Young Minds, Lucie Russell. We hope our peers find it useful.

Forthcoming meetings of note

Addressing young people’s heath inequalities

http://www.ayph.org.uk/publications/318_Flyer%2017%20October%202013.pdf

The next  meeting of the RCGP Adolescent Health Group is our TelCon 12/09/13 and then full meeting in early December.

Anyy questions: please contact

Chair: jane.roberts@sunderland

Secretary ( & resident poet) :  Samir Dawlatly  s.dawlatly@nhs.net

Administratorpar excellence : Hannah Price hannah.price@rcgp.org.uk

With very best wishes

Jane

 

June 2013

        

Istanbul  was the chosen location for the 10^th world congress of the International Association of Adolescent Health , the last one having been held 4 years ago in Malaysia.

The congress was held over a lively, hectic four days  with presentations, workshops, symposia and posters presented in three parallel streams: Public Health; Clinical ; Sexual and Reproductive and a Professional Development Stream. The day’s programme started at 0830 and ran through until 18.00 , often featuring lunch time activities in addition.

 Nicola Gray and myself were fortunate to be able to attend the meeting, supported by the RCGP Adolescent Health Group . We contributed to a symposium which introduced the audience to the ground breaking work of   AYPH and Youth Access : ‘GP Champions’ and other initiatives by community based youth friendly primary care practitioners, including pharmacy , podiatry and optometry. 

For myself, the key messages were

• ·        adolescence is the foundation for future health

• ·        investing in the second decade will maintain the health gains achieved in the first decade

• ·    health for youth requires a co-ordinated and holistic response extending  beyond ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’

• ·         education in undergraduate programmes  and CPD  for practitioners is universally lacking  

• ·         youth-friendly   practitioners need to advocate locally, nationally and internationally

The conference was a convivial experience with adolescent health practitioners almost universally a warm and welcoming crowd.

The highlight of the programme was a presentation by the group of young people who had been meeting since the start of the conference. Their project was to produce position statements summarizing their debates on the 7 areas of the HEADSSS acronym- a framework for discussion in the consultation.

H-Home

E- Education

A-Activities

D- Drugs

S-Safety

S- Suicide

S- Sexual health

Please see the facebook link which has all the position statements posted and more!

Check out

 www.facebook.com/youthforumIAAH2013

Nicola and I were very proud of our 2 UK reps : Collette & Ellen- you were great !

That's all from me folks

with best wishes

Jane Roberts

 

May blog- our One Day Educational Event was a great success

We did it!

Our One Day Event on Adolescent Health was a great success. With almost 100 delegates, a great array of speakers, excellent organization from our back-up team at RCGP  a good day was had by all.

There was lots of interest on twitter: see below!

Tweets from GP Conf on

Adolescent Health 26/4/13

See http://tinyurl.com/cbfso6v for

programme on a 1 Day Essential

Conference organised by the RCGP on

Adolescent Health and held in London

‘Great speakers at #ODEAH - adolescent health training by RCGP's & good speaking with individual doctors

about wanting 2 do more 4 teen Mental Health’

We are gathering the feedback and I will report  the key themes as we use the comments to inform the planning of future events.

Thanks to  all who contributed and to those who attended the day. Certificates of attendance will be winging their way to you imminently!