The funding provided by Healthwatch Staffordshire Community Cash Fund allowed us here at Burton and District Mind with the opportunity to host a programme of Emotional Wellbeing workshops for young people aged 16-24 and for people with learning disabilities.
These workshops have been to support the impact of Covid-19 on young people accessing and receiving mental health services. By running these workshops we discovered many different key findings some being that the pandemic has had a negative impact on the audience of this project, however, not to the same extent that national reports evidence , further work is needed with the audience to support psycho-education outcomes, particularly around awareness of emotional wellbeing vs mental health, confidence and self-esteem and that the internet is an important source for information regarding mental health for young people.
During the workshop there were many reports of people ‘closing down’ and not speaking to others, becoming more isolated as a coping mechanism. This was at odds with some others reaching out for mutual support from friends. Some individuals said..
“I reached out to old friends from school; but none of them came back to me – I guess I know who my true friends are now”
“I just wanted to hide from the world and hoped it would go away, I didn’t to talk to anyone!”
Individuals involved in the workshop also provided a strong sense of humour despite the nature of the project. This should be seen as a really positive way of engaging with people, lifting mood and bringing hope.
“what can help? Nothing much, unless you count the Lego Star Wars Tantive IV set which I desperately require to survive.”
“Things to stay well? Sleeping more, retail, consuming the souls of the damned <3”
You can download the report in full here.
We would like to express our gratitude to the staff at the partner organisations for making this project happen and for all their support and to our fantastic team of volunteers who pulled out all the stops to bring out the best in the project.
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