Being Myself Report - A look at the Emotional Wellbeing of young people in Daventry Town
A survey designed by Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire was shared with young people across Daventry. The survey looked at young people’s physical and emotional wellbeing, the activities and services they currently use to maintain wellbeing and which services they feel would be beneficial to them in the future.
473 young people aged between 11 and 19 completed the survey between March and May 2020. A similar survey for parents/carers was also completed by 29 people. To gather the responses, we worked with two schools in Daventry - DSLV E-ACT Academy and The Parker E-ACT Academy.
Two focus groups were also held with 10 young people from The Parker E-ACT Academy.
As part of the project seven semi-structured interviews were conducted by Time2Talk with young people who were already accessing their service to find out more about why young people self-harm and what helps them.
Key findings
- Healthy lifestyle - Most young people, 88%, rated their lifestyle as moderately healthy (44%), healthy (34%) or very healthy (10%).
- Dealing with difficult emotions - When life got difficult, 55% of young people said they listened to music, with doing an activity they enjoyed (42%) and talking to friends (42%) also popular responses. 61% chose one of the four options involving talking to someone.
- Use of services - The majority of young people (80%) had not had to access any services to help them manage their emotional health. Of those that had accessed a service, 38% had used their doctor, 31% a counselling service, 27% a School Nurse and 25% Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
- Self-harm - 31% said they knew or suspected that one of their friends had self-harmed, with a further 19% not wanting to say.
Response from Healthy Young Daventry
The Healthy Young Daventry Project is grateful to the Young People and Parents who took part in the surveys, focus groups and interviews which enabled Healthwatch to provide this report and set of recommendations.
Developing Activities with Young People – The Healthy Young Daventry project will enable key providers of:
- Sport and physical activity
- Environmental activity
- Wellbeing and relaxation
To work with young people to develop new opportunities which are appealing and accessible.
Responding to Young People at the point of disclosure of self-harm – The partner organisations will engage in training about self-harm, safety planning and emotion coaching to support those professionals in providing a helpful response to Young People. We will work with our Youth Counselling partners to develop a series of sessions to raise awareness and offer support to parents.
Raising awareness of the services and access points that are available to Young People and Parents – The team will work with the schools to develop a communication plan for the year to help Young People and families to gain a better understanding of what services are available, how to access them and what to expect. We will ensure that all Young People are aware of the Text Your School Nurse service and are able to identify safe adults they can speak to about things that concern them.
Advocate for Young People to have choice – We will commit to co-production in relation to all new service developments. We will promote the rights of Young People to make choices in how they wish to access and receive support.
