Collaboration, autonomy, mutual respect: what does agency look like for young people accessing mental health services?
For the past four years, McPin has collaborated with five young people to explore how interactions with mental health services might help or harm those seeking support when they’re in crisis.
Two new videos spotlight our young advisors’ involvement in the Agency project. Along with shaping the project throughout, they also analysed video-recorded interactions in emergency departments between young people and mental health professionals, then shared their thoughts with researchers.
Supporting lived experience in mental health research
In these videos, our young advisors share that in the past they often felt powerless and unable to co-create their own mental health care plans with mental health professionals.
One spoke about how, through joining the Agency project, they found their voice again after experiencing stigma around their mental health.
Being around other people with similar lived experiences and working with them on this project made them feel emboldened and able to leverage those experiences for something positive.
Young people shaping research
Those initial interactions between young people in crisis and a mental health team are so important in establishing trust. Throughout the project, the young advisors spoke with the researchers about how challenging it can be to place trust in professionals when feeling vulnerable.
When watching the recordings of emergency department interactions during the analysis phase, our young advisors told the research team they felt the young people weren’t being validated. They reflected that how mental health care professionals communicate is as important as what they say.
Watch the videos here:
A huge thank you to the five members of the McPin’s Young People’s Network who were young advisers on the Agency project, and to those who contributed to the making of these videos.
Funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), our Young People’s Network worked with Rose McCabe, Matthew Broome, Lisa Bortolotti and Michael Larkin.
