Local statistics revealed that there were higher than average levels of mental ill health amongst adults living in the area, and feedback from participants of the project's stress management groups prompted us to think about mental health in relation to young people.

In April 2000, an outline for a project focussing on the mental health needs of young people in the Pennywell area of Sunderland was put forward to the Health Action Zone in Tyne and Wear.

The aims of the project were to

• Establish a model practice for the planning and delivery of mental health services to marginalised young people in the area, and
• Engage young people in planning, delivery and evaluation processes, thereby rooting services within the youth community.

To achieve this, the project planned to train young people to provide peer support and develop a research model to identify mental health issues amongst young people in the area.

They would then be able to determine young peoples' views on how best their needs could be met.

The process would involve young people in the planning and delivery of mental health initiatives for young people and establish a peer support network.

This would lead to the establishment of a range of appropriate and accessible mental health services to be set up which could be monitored for effectiveness.

The outcomes could then be evaluated.

The location of the project would be the areas of Pennywell, Upper Ford, Grindon and South Hylton.

As well as Health Action input, the project would work in partnership with the following agencies offering relevant support:

Community Psychiatric Nurse - Pennywell Medical Centre

Youth work and community development - Pennywell Neighbourhood

Centre 

Advice and support -  Health Promotion

Links to these organisations are provided on our community links page.

How it began

A multi  disciplinary core project team recruited 10 young people between the ages of 12 and 17 to help with the design of the study, to find out the views of other young people in Pennywell and to make suggestions about what kind of services might best support the mental health of themselves and their peers.

An eight week programme was carried out to develop awareness of mental health issues in the volunteers and to give them the confidence to go out and ask difficult questions of other young people.

At the end of the programme, the 10 volunteers carried out a questionnaire and focus group survey covering the views of young people from ages 11 to 18, at school or college, in training or employment, unemployed or having left school before the age of 16.

The research

The material from the focus groups and questionnaires was analysed to elicit the opinions of young people in the area on the following topics:

• What makes life worth living
• What they cannot cope with
• What they do when they are feeling down
• What would improve their lives
• What services are needed in Pennywell to support young people, and
• Who should be responsible for providing services to young people.

Summary of findings

• The most important influences on positive mental health were seen as supportive family and friends.
• Factors that cause stress were seen as death of a family member or friend, school, debt and difficulty in finding paid work.
• Coping strategies included spending time with friends, relaxing and taking exercise.
• The things that would improve the lives of young people included money, support and increased self confidence.
• There was a perceived need for a safe place, such as a drop in centre or coffee bar, where young people in the area could meet friends and relax away from their families.
• It was identified that young people envisaged government or National Lottery money should be used to provide services, but that young people should take some responsibility for setting services up.

The group presented their findings to a professional audience and funding for year 2 and 3 was ring fenced to enable the young people involved to action the findings of the research.

YMM group get together

Next Steps and Recent Developments

The next stage of the project was for the original rearchers to train as peer mentors and to develop a blue print for a drop-in which would provide a safe and relaxed environment where young people could call in and discuss their concerns. Eventually a fortnightly drop in was set up at Pennywell Youth Project as this is a centre already widely used by young people.

As time went by the need for more mentors to be trained became evident and the original core group wanted to roll out their succesful way of working to other parts of the City . They also wanted to take a more active role in how the project was to develop further. The group became constituted in its own right although the Neighbourhood Centre has continued to support them in fund raising and financial functions.

The project obtained a £7,000 grant from the Local Network fund to allow them to train new groups of mentors in areas such as Pallion and Grindon and support them to pilot drop-ins. They also won a £1,500 Lord High Sheriff's Award.

A link was made with a nationally funded Lottery project called Youth Peer Power  which at looks at ways that young people can cope in stressful situations, and the project become the northern advisory group for this. This gave the members the opportunity to travel to other parts of the country to take part in training and share their experience with other groups of young people.  

The group is currently seeking further funding to maintain the drop-ins in the new areas.

For further information on this or any other part of the Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre's work, please contact the centre.