1 in 4 of us will suffer mental ill health at some point in our lives. For our information gathering task the Y141ers spent last week looking for information for young people on mental health. Some of the links to the websites they found are listed below but we would like to say that information on its own isn’t enough.
Our job as youth workers is to support young people. That means providing information where appropriate but being there to talk, encourage, sit quietly and generally be around to help the young people we work with who suffer mental ill-health. The information on the sites below is as much for our benefit as for the young people we work with. We, as professional workers, need to be informed about mental health. I would suggest that part of our job is to tackle the stigma and ignorance that still surrounds depression, schizophrenia, paranoia, eating disorders and self harm.
Here are a few of our links:
moodjuice- information from Forth Valley NHS for young people with worries or in crisis, carers and professionals.
Penumbra – one of Scotland’s leading Mental Health organisations.
Young Minds- information for children, young people and parents as well as professionals and supporters.
See Me – campaign to end the stigma attached to mental ill-health
edspace – Edinburgh mental health information
our RSS feed 
This is a good resource for youthworkers. Its important to find out what is available in your own area.
Its a frightening statistic!!
As a student mental health nurse I have a particular interest on the impact of mental health issues on family. While browsing I came across this and thought you might find it interesting and worth a read (if you haven’t already that is).
In February 2007 a research paper was published in the European Eating Disorders Review. It was written by SANE researchers and focussed on Pro-Eating Disorder Websites: Users’ Opinions.
The online survey was the first of its kind in the UK, its aim to discover who visits these sites and the reasons why. It also examined the impact that the sites have on those who use them and whether or not they were deemed to be helpful or damaging.
151 individuals took part over a period of several months.
KEY FINDINGS
Almost 70% were aged 22 or younger (some as young as 13)
More than half of those surveyed visited pro-eating websites at least once a day
24% reported some kind of social difficulty
43% said the sites were a source of emotional comfort
Understandably there is real concern for the vulnerability demonstrated by the people who are visiting such sites where they can learn to be anorexic or maintain an eating disorder and how to adapt their behaviour to hide their condition from others.
read more on the SANE website … http://sane.org.uk/news/view/107
bpositive, We were talking about this issue in class it was mentioned that websites on their own may not be that useful, but as a resourse where, we as youthworkers, can get information or point a young person in a direction where they can receive help is valuable. They are a valuable resourse even to try and understand a wee bit about the issues.
Sounds like my kinda discussion!
Of course you’re right, it is crucial in your work with young people to have an awareness of the many issues facing those who suffer from mental ill-health and the effect it has on family and wider community.
I realise that you’ve talked about the importance of being there for someone, whether it’s to encourage, listen or simply be present. Never underestimate the value in this or how powerful it can be because it can help someone take their first tentative steps towards seeking help.
The reason for my earlier post was really to highlight the growing concern relating to potentially damaging sites eg. pro-anorexia sites. This topic was raised recently with some mental health nurses I’m currently working with. It’s alarming that these websites are growing fast on social networking sites with groups being accessible through Facebook and Myspace. There’s a good piece on the BBC website (August, 2007 so it’s up to date!). Here’s the link if anyone wants to have a look:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3580182.stm