MHAW: Loneliness and Young People

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week’s 2022 theme of ‘loneliness’ and many of our service offerings, we support young people with a variety of mental health issues, and something we come across frequently is young people experiencing feelings of loneliness, isolation or rejection.

Given the past two years have been very different for our generations’ young people, being out of school and without access to familiar environments at times, we feel it is more important than ever to raise awareness and tackle the issue collectively.

Being a student at a school or college can be difficult, even without the changes caused by the pandemic. It can be difficult to fit in and find likeminded people to spend your time with. It’s also important to remember that time in educational settings tends to be spent at a time in a young person’s life when they’re experiencing developmental changes, with which worries and concerns are bound to be present.

To address the unique needs of our young people and ensure their health and wellbeing has been maintained throughout their individual journey’s, we have several services in the local area that work with local schools and colleges to support this endeavour.

An example of this is our Self-Mediation and Self Help (SMASH) teams, who go into schools and colleges across Hull and the East Riding to deliver their group-based programme, taking young people referrals forwards to support them with self-regulation, social interactions and emotional resilience.

As part of this important work, SMASH aims to build young people’s self-esteem and resilience, providing them with strategies to cope with everyday stresses, negative feelings and issues young people may be faced with at school, at home or online.

A great example of the group work SMASH are currently doing with young people is their SMASH Grow project. This aims to get young people outdoors and reaping the mental health benefits of time spent in nature. As part of this, their Trees4Life project has seen hundreds of trees donated to education environments across the area, which students have helped to plant. This not only helps the students spend more time in an enjoyable environment but helps to give them a sense of purpose and community, knowing they have contributed to an important project and are working together with their peers to build a relaxing space that our young people can enjoy for years to come.

In addition to our SMASH service, another great example of ongoing support for our young people would be our Integrated Specialise Public Health Nursing Service, and the School Nurses within our various teams, who go into educational settings to support young people and be a listening ear for those who want to open up about any worries or concerns they may have.

As part of this service, we offer Chat Health, a confidential text messaging service for young people aged 11-19 years of age, living in the East Riding, and by young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities up to the age of 25.

The messaging service enables young people to easily get in touch with their School Nurses, and is also a way for our teams to refer young people to other health practitioners when appropriate, including GP and sexual health appointments.

As a Trust, we are exceptionally proud of the children and young people’s services our teams delivery every day, but especially so throughout the pandemic. Feelings of loneliness are something that we all have experienced over the last two years, and it fills us with a great sense of reward knowing that our services have stayed open and available to our young people throughout.

Helpful resources

For young people experiencing loneliness or other mental health concerns:

• Hull and East Yorkshire Mind https://www.heymind.org.uk/
• Young Minds https://www.youngminds.org.uk/
• ISPHNs School Nurses and Chat Health https://humberisphn.nhs.uk/
• Thrive Hull https://www.howareyoufeeling.org.uk/
• Headspace App https://www.headspace.com/
• Calm App https://www.calm.com/
• Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/