Wales’ new mental health strategy needs more clarity if we are to truly support young people

Nia Evans – Mind Cymru’s children and young people manager

World Mental Health Day is here again, bringing us opportunity once more to reflect on how far we’ve come in ensuring young people’s rights to good mental health and good mental healthcare are upheld, and that mental health services are both available and accessible to all who need them.

Here in Wales, we are also a step closer to welcoming in a new era for mental health too, following the publication by Welsh Government of a summary of responses to their recent consultation on a draft Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

News we are moving closer to the strategy being finalised is a welcome development in a process which, once complete, should help us over the coming decade to learn from the past, and plan more effectively for the future.

At Mind Cymru, we’ve engaged with the Welsh Government throughout the development process for the strategy, feeding in the views we were hearing from the young people we have engaged with.

As we get closer to the publication of the final strategy, what we’re looking for now is an outline of what it all means for children and young people and the specific actions the Welsh Government are committed to achieving for them.

Risks

This is following our work with young people who expressed concern that the ‘all-age’ approach policy makers have taken in drafting the new strategy risks overlooking the issues and needs that remain specific to them.

So, this World Mental Health Day we’re urging the Welsh Government not only to listen more closely to what our young people are asking for – but to make sure they act on it too.

It is our belief that involving young people with lived experience of mental health issues is imperative to the success of this strategy’s development and delivery, and we will continue to ensure their voices are heard as its development moves beyond the consultation phase.

Impact

Part of our work in making sure this happens has involved engaging with focus groups that helped us form a response on the proposals so far, with the key question in mind – ‘Is the strategy fair on young people?’.

Whilst those who took part described the Welsh Government’s vision itself as good overall, what we found in response to this particular question was that it still lacked a coherent or strategic outline of what its impact will be on the mental health experiences of children and young people specifically.

‘What difference would it make?’ is the question that has been raised collectively in response.

Generally speaking, the draft strategy aims to provide an ‘all age’ approach to supporting everyone’s mental health needs across Wales from birth onwards, but we heard that, in doing so, it risks not considering the mental health needs and challenges unique to young people.

It is our opinion that taking an ‘all-age’ approach to policy development in Wales must not result in a loss of focus on those most in need of protection. This is, after all, why the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child exists, and why Wales has fought so hard to ensure its application here is embedded within legislation.

So, whilst it is positive to see the Convention committed to in the draft strategy, this must translate into how young people live and breathe it through their experiences. Understanding that they have a right to good mental health and good mental health care, that they know where to go should they need support, and that the support is both available and accessible to them at the point at which they need it, are all examples of ensuring a children’s rights-based approach in real terms.

Crucial elements

Identifying them as a specific priority group within the final strategy, bringing together all the actions relating to them, and clarifying exactly what specific outputs and outcomes we can expect to see included to better support their mental health are all crucial elements in safeguarding their rights here.

To put this need for action into context, at present children and young people in Wales frequently experience longer waits for mental health support and a poorer overall experience – even though they should be afforded an additional level of protection from the Convention.

In addition to this, the Welsh Government continue to identify themselves that poor mental health among children is increasing, and that young people experienced the largest deterioration in their mental health as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our network of local Minds across Wales work hard to support young people in their communities and provide them with a range of support services that can meet their needs and improve their mental health outcomes.

It is our collective role to ensure that their voices and lived experiences of mental health issues inform all national strategic developments that are likely to impact upon them. We must remember that, after all, children and young people have a right to be heard and Welsh Government has a responsibility to actively listen.

So, while we welcome feedback on what the Welsh Government has learned from the
consultation phase in drafting a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Wales, we will also continue to reflect a children’s rights approach in all that we do, ensuring that their voices are heard and that their lived experience of mental health problems informs everything the Welsh Government is doing to produce the new strategy.

For example, many of the principles and aspirations within the draft strategy resonated with our young people during the consultation process, including the intention to create care and support systems that are ‘person-centred, compassionate and recovery-focused’.

Future

While the young people we’ve been working with agree that this approach is indeed well intentioned, they also say that achieving this depends on the extent to which the strategy addresses the specific needs of young people in practice. Support services need to be well- equipped and invested in to allow for this approach to be truly realised and meet the growing needs of young people.

So, we would like to see the Welsh Government commit to focusing more fully on the outline of a vision, principles and goals as they relate to children and young people for inclusion in the new strategy. We want to know how these principles will be applied, and what the Welsh mental health system is expected to look like for children and young people in future.

What’s more, the mental health support they can expect to receive needs to be laid out in a manner that children and young people themselves will understand, and communicated in a way that will assure them their rights are being upheld and their voices and lived experiences are a vital part of mental health policy development and delivery.

Drafting a ten-year national mental health strategy is an opportunity to create a real driver for change when it comes to improving young people’s mental health, but this can only be achieved if a focus on young people’s needs is protected.

We have reached a significant moment in Wales which presents us with an important opportunity to really get things right for children and young people and to deliver a tangible step change in experiences when it comes to their mental health. We cannot afford to wait another decade to ensure that their mental health needs are prioritised, and their voices are truly heard.

Nia Evans is Mind Cymru’s Children and Young People Manager, managing its policy and campaigning work with, and for, young people across Wales. Throughout her career, Nia has witnessed the development of multiple national strategies aiming to improve the mental health of Wales’ young people, having also worked at Welsh Government, NSPCC Cymru/Wales and the Office for the Children’s Commissioner for Wales within that time.