Our young campaigners between them have changed the face of mental health services forever, have made a huge dent in the stigma surrounding mental health and have raised awareness of the vital importance of children and young people’s resilience and good mental health across the nation. They have met with government ministers, spoken in parliament, sat on national and regional decision making bodies, campaigned on the streets, been interviewed by national and regional print and broadcast media and ensured that young people’s voice in children and young people’s mental health services is heard, valued and acted on

This has included launching a national manifesto for better mental health that has become the leading publication on young people’s demands for what needs to change, meeting with government ministers and speaking with them on public platforms in parliament, being involved in a range of national government consultations, making a series of three films about mental health stigma, developing all the participation support for  the first phase of the children and young people’s IAPT programme, launching a London specific manifesto for the recent mayoral elections and  influencing the training curriculum for the Royal College of Psychatrists. These are just a few highlights, there are so many more!

The young people we have worked with are some of the bravest I have ever met, they have found the courage, despite their personal suffering to tell their stories and put forward their views and opinions in order to make things better for the thousands of young people who are experiencing emotional distress every day. Many of these children and young people are voiceless and they suffer in silence, no one listens to them and many just dont have the strength to speak up and ask for what they need. Some sadly dont make it and we remember them with deep sadness.

We at YoungMinds are honoured to have worked with the young people in our VIK group, it is such a privilege when we are told, “the VIK project has helped give meaning and purpose to some of my very negative experiences”. We have also worked with a group of parents as part of this project who are equally as brave, strong, determined and inspirational as the young people.

The VIK project has ended but this is not the end of our campaigning work with young people. We are waiting to hear from funders about our plans for the next phase of our work – to build a mass movement for change and a national campaigning network that will continue to fight for young people’s mental health and resilience to be core to all decision making both locally and nationally. Young people are and continue to be at the heart of everything we do at YoungMinds and our commitment to giving them a voice and the chance to change attitudes to mental health and service provision will never falter.

Lucie Russell
YoungMinds, Director of Campaigns, Policy and Participation

The plan outlines the work Transport for London does to ensure that young people can travel safely and actively in the Capital. The plan also includes initiatives which raise awareness of careers at TfL and within the transport industry.  The draft Plan reviews the work that has been carried out to date in London and sets the future direction for their work with children and young people.

They have an online consultation survey and are asking for input up until the 27th March. You can access the survey here: public consultation until Wednesday 27 March and it would be great to get your feedback via the online consultation https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/schools/younglondon

It all started with depression. Feeling like my body was made of lead, that breathing was too much work, that nothing gave me pleasure any more. Over time I developed other symptoms, becoming scared of the world and everything in it. Terrified of failing. Then came the voices. a constant noise, someone shouting at me, telling me I’m doing everything wrong, making me scared to do anything, because whatever I do, I can never do it right. And the people.Following me around everywhere, tall and omnipotent. And then the daily struggle to eat. The feeling that I dont deserve food.

Of course this all brings on a flurry of therapy. Talking therapy. Three times a week, I go and discuss the worst parts of my life, my nightmares. I make it all real again. Then there’s the drugs. The drugs that make me put on weight, sleep too much, that make my muscles stiff. And still, frequently, I find myself in a hospital bed, the hot and sweaty building I’m not allowed out of, where the windows open 12 cm and the staff are there, ready to pump drugs into me when I can’t control myself. I’m thankful for these things, but it doesn’t take away from them being hard.

I probably won’t ever fully recover. These symptoms will stay with me for life. But I get out of bed in the mornings, I do charity work, I do my best to help other people. No matter how loud the voices, how tired the meds make me, how hard it is to pick up a pen.

This is the side of mental illness that doesn’t get seen. The daily struggle. I get called a psycho. A scrounger. Those words hurt as much as my symptoms. I want people to realise what I actually am, Just for continuing to get out of bed. Brave.

You can listen to the interview on the link below.

BBC Radio 4 Today 23.02 Sarah and Lauren VIR

Later that evening VIR ‘Jane’ also spoke to BBC Radio Five Live’s Stephen Nolan Show about her experiences.

You can hear the interview here BBC 5Live VIR Jane tranistions

This UK360 show, which is presented by Sam Naz from BBC3 60 Seconds, is due to air on Monday 25^th February, Thursday 28^th February and again on Monday 4^th April and Thursday 7^th April at 7am and 7pm.   You can watch the Community Channel on Freeview, Virgin, Sky and iPlayer.

Community Channel receives over a million viewers each month and UK360 currently broadcasts weekly and is hosted by different guest presenters (Sir Terry Wogan, Scott Mills, Benjamin Zephaniah, Louisa Lytton) and many more (WATCH HERE). The show broadcasts Mondays and Thursdays at 7am/7pm on the channel and you can also view episodes online. To get a better idea of what the show is about here is UK360′s promo: http://www.communitychannel.org/video/qjASCfBQXEE/uk360_promo

Here, I have a joke for you.

A depressed girl with a history of eating disorders goes to her doctor. She says that she is going to climb to a height of 5000m en route to an ancient Inca settlement in the Andes. Her doctor doesn’t bat an eyelid.

Seriously though, that’s pretty much the conversation I had with my doctor last year.

In September 2012 I completed a 10 day trip to Peru, 6 days of which I spent trekking 50 miles through blazing sun, snow and cloud topped mountains, rivers, rocks and mud. My objective- to follow the path of the Incas to the top of Machu Picchu. Without letting my mental health interfere. Easier said than done on a mission that would push even a healthy person’s body and mind to its limits.

I won’t lie, there were points when I thought I couldn’t carry on- when my body ached, when I looked up to the top and wondered would I ever get there,  when I doubted myself and my mind said I wasn’t strong enough.
But I carried on. I tried to be honest and kind to myself. When I was weak I rested, when I was sad I turned to my new friends, when I was depressed all I had to do was look around me. Being in such a huge and dynamic landscape riddled with history and travellers’ tales puts things in context, how vast the world is and just how much you can be. It makes you see the scale of things, and without being cliché or soppy, it was a very moving and deep experience.

I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the first questions that jumped into your head was “Are the motives of a recovered anorexic to push her body the extreme on such an arduous trek really that innocent?”.  In all honesty I can say yes, they were. I wanted to prove that you can do these things with or without a mental illness, and that recovery is possible. I very much doubt that I could have been able to complete such a strenuous trek a couple of years ago when I was in the thick of my eating disorder.

In the depths of my anorexia I was a weight better suited to a pre-pubescent child. Physical activity was out of the question. Just carrying a light bag home from the corner shop would be met with a questioning look and a comment from my mum. It was a long hard battle, riddled with manipulation, pain, control, denial and deceit- to both myself and those around me. Last summer marked one year of me eating normally again. Obviously the eating disorder has left its mark, both mentally and physically. Every now and then I still catch myself wondering ‘what if…’. Needless to say after 2 years of near starvation my joints are ruined and my bones probably aren’t in much better condition. My muscle made a slow recovery, my hair grew thick again and my head was no longer disproportionately large for my body. And above all that, I started to do things again. Things that ‘normal’ students do- I went for lunch without worrying about the menu, I made friends, I sang, I danced, I got drunk. I entered recovery.

And why, you may ask. The easy answer would be I fell in love. But it’s a lot deeper than that. By finding someone who accepted me with my demons, I learnt to accept myself without them. Being put in a situation where eating was enjoyable and expected and normal (as opposed to being prescribed a menu by a psychiatrist) was so much more natural, so much easier. I learnt to let go. I’ve always been scared of losing control, being late, not knowing what is happening. In seeing someone who I think the world of being so relaxed, I taught myself to emulate that. And it was so fun- the world can seem a horrible place, and it still does sometimes, but there were all these things that I was missing out on right in front of me. This crippling, controlling illness had stolen so much of my teenage years. I’d missed out on so many things, I sat and let the world pass me by. The Moody Blues sang “Life’s ours for the making” and I realised I was making very little. It took someone with dreams and ideas and a passion for life to show me that.

I went from being a dangerously ill girl teaching herself at home for her A-levels, to a student moving to London to study her passion at a top university. Obviously it wasn’t that easy and depression still marks many of my days, but I had started to re-build a life. When the opportunity came to raise money for charity whilst immersing myself in the fascinating culture of South America, I blindly leapt into wherever saying ‘yes’ would take me.

And where did I land? With a group of welcoming strangers all about to embark on an incredibly challenging trip. To the best of my knowledge I was the only trekker with a mental health condition (although you could argue you’d have to be crazy to undertake this mission out of your own free will). Together we tackled that beast of The Andes. It took literal blood sweat and tears, but we all made it.

On the penultimate day as we stood in the ruins of that ancient civilization looking out across the mountain ranges, I believe we all felt a great sense of achievement, but I believe mine was different. Those once fragile legs carried the weight of both body and mind all that way. I didn’t break down, I didn’t think about my weight, I didn’t care about how I looked. The odds were definitely against me, but I did it- with the majority of my sanity still intact.

However, it wasn’t until I was on the coach home, half asleep from 24 hours and three flights when the feat I had just accomplished truly dawned on me. I curled up in my seat; wrapped in my alpaca wool jumper, aching limbs, sun burnt shoulders, tired mind, racing heart and I realised- maybe, just maybe, this is what recovery feels like.

Did I lose weight? Perhaps.
Do I care? Not really.

A production company has been in touch with me. If you are interested in the below just drop me an email on chris.leaman@youngminds.org.uk

Best

Chris

I work for Exclusive TV, an independent production company which makes documentaries, factual entertainment shows and other programmes.

We’re fairly new but, already, we’ve made a critically-acclaimed documentary for Channel 4 called Sing for your Life with another show soon to be broadcast on the BBC.

We’re currently in development, with a network broadcaster, on a documentary about prescription drugs. A sensitive, non-sensational film that explores the subject without judgement or agenda.

In particular we are looking to focus on a number of areas:

a) ‘second generation’ prescriptions. Young adults and parents who were on prescription medication as children or teenagers and who may now be faced with the decision of giving their own children similar medication, and those whose children are taking them.

b) long-term medication. Teenagers – 16, 17, 18 – who’ve been on prescription drugs for a long time. They may now be entering adulthood and, as such, have more of a say in the medication they are taking.

The range of medication is, of course, fairly wide. We’re not looking to focus on any one drug but clearly Ritalin, Adderall, Modafinil, Valium and Prozac are amongst them.

To make this programme, we’re obviously going to need to talk to people in these situations. And we’re currently looking for suitable case studies.

I appreciate this is a difficult area.

Let me assure you that any conversations in the first instance would be totally confidential.

With your help, I think we could make a great documentary that maybe challenges some perceptions and also sheds light on a very important issue.

Exclusive TV’s run by Ian Rumsey, who’s been making programmes – documentaries, news, live shows and lighter programmes – for more than 2 decades.

Minds Like Ours will ask young people aged 16-25 from across the UK to share their personal experiences of living with a mental health disorder, filmed entirely by themselves using handheld cameras. This film will deal with all the every day challenges of growing up – from school to careers, to relationships and moving out of home – but through the eyes of young people living with a variety of mental health conditions.This really will be their story, in their own words.

This documentary aims to offer a voice to those who are coming to terms with their condition and show some of the daily challenges they face, with humour, strength and determination. We hope that this film will help increase understanding of a range of mental health issues and confront the stigma that still exists.

If you are interested in taking part please drop me an email chris.leaman@youngminds.org.uk

It is hoped that this series will give us a unique insight into OCD, phobias, Tourette’s syndrome, sleep disorders and other general anxiety disorders.

It will be told from the perspective of those living with the disorder or phobia, and their families and friends, and as such it is an opportunity to gain further understanding of the roots of some of these conditions and the impact on their day to day lives.

We are therefore keen to speak to people who suffer from the kind of mental health and neurological issues we’ve outlined above, who would be interested in finding out more about this important series and the contribution they might make.

If you are interested in taking part please email me chris.leaman@youngminds.org.uk

The specific areas that we are hoping to cover are: Anxiety (including panic attacks), Depression (including Bi-Polar disorder), Self Harm,  Eating Disorders, OCD,  Psychosis,and Schizophrenia. 

If you are interested in taking part drop me an email chris.leaman@youngminds.org.uk