Welsh mental health charity Hafal has issued a checklist of the Welsh Assembly Government’s report on young people’s mental health services “Breaking the Barriers: Meeting the Challenges – Better Support for Children and Young People with Emotional Well-being and Mental Health Needs”.
Hafal has extracted the recommendations, specific actions and timescales from the report and put them into a table.
This is mainly for Hafal’s use but it is hoped that others may also find this way of presenting the information the report contains useful.
Hafal has also been discussing “Breaking the Barriers” with stakeholders including our focus group of young people. The messages coming back are:
• Mental health services for young people should be protected as a priority (as should all mental health services) in view of the pending public expenditure squeeze.
• The actions proposed in “Breaking the Barriers” are generally welcome but quite interim in nature and we need – as is acknowledged in the report itself – a longer-term vision.
• The new vision should involve care and treatment plans for young service users with more serious problems becoming paramount and all services that those young people receive becoming subsidiary to those care and treatment plans.
• The new Mental Health Measure (which we anticipate will include those below 18 years of age following the Minister’s response to the Legislation Committee’s report) will provide a platform for a new era for mental health services for young people.
Young people’s perspective on the future of mental health services will be incorporated in our young people’s information services which are due this autumn.
To view Hafal’s Breaking the Barriers checklist please visit: http://www.hafal.org/hafal/pdf/Breaking%20the%20Barriers%20Checklist.pdf