Here's how Barnsley young people are influencing local mental health and wellbeing services 

Young people across Barnsley are coming together to help shape and influence local mental health and wellbeing services. They are also getting involved in lots of great awareness raising work and peer mentoring groups.

The CCG has commissioned Chilypep to support young people to influence services and develop what the CCG called 'young commissioners'. Well, those young commissioners are now in place and gave themselves a much better name: OASIS. 

OASIS stands for Opening up Awareness & Support and Influencing Services and they have received training in commissioning and how to influence change.

Here are some examples of just some of the participation work they have been doing over the past year.

• Consultation report  pdf - Understanding the needs of young people in Barnsley around Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing
• Chilypep newsletter pdf - highlight of participation work including 'What's tops & what's pants?'

Here are some examples of the campaigns and awareness raising the groups have also been doing.

• Youth mental health first aid kit pdf - don't box it up #NotJustMe
• Become a peer mentor at Barnsley College this summer pdf
• Things you can do to maintain positive emotional wellbeing pdf

 Photo top right thanks to Chilypep: Members of OASIS & Barnsley College peer mentors

#AlrightPal

On World Suicide Prevention Day 2018 the OASIS group came together to spotlight the stigma surrounding young men and boys’ mental health and encourage them to talk about their feelings.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under the age of 50 and the OASIS group want to help those feeling desperate to reach out and ask for help.

To add their voices to the #AlrightPal campaign supported by Barnsley Council, the OASIS group created the following video clip to demonstrate the different ways people react to men opening up.

The first scenario in which a young man admits to a friend that he is feeling low shows a series of negative, stigmatising responses such as ‘man up,’ ‘get over it,’ ‘you’re bringing everyone down.’  The second scenario offers more supportive, encouraging responses.

Click the link to listen to the audio clip You Alright Pal Video

The video is part of the OASIS group’s larger, ongoing campaigning around mental health. The group are currently working on their own campaigns to help young people like themselves find their inner hero and see the positivity in mental health.

Future in Mind Workshops 

A huge thank you to all who have attended our Future in Mind Workshops held over the last three years (with the most recent and final workshop being held in November 2019) and the teams who have shared the progress being made in Barnsley. 

As we come to the end of our five-year-plan, we have established young commissioners supported by Chilypep, a thriving early help offer, commenced whole school resilience training in primary schools, 4:Thought is now operational in secondary schools - all of which is focused on generating a legacy of emotional wellbeing and resilience in the next generation. 

Hearing how young people are acting as peer mentors and directly influencing core services was powerful and inspirational and bodes well for the future.  Equally, noting how parents as well as young people have responded positively to the skills development on offer illustrates how such work can be transformative and sustaining across generations.

Click here to read what the OASIS (pdf doc) young commissioners have been working on in 2019.

Click here to read what the OASIS (word doc) young commissioners have been working on in 2018.

Click here to see one of the presentations made by OASIS (pdf) at the workshop event in 2017. The image above shows one of the great methods OASIS used to get people's feedback on 'what's tops & what's pants?'.

Thanks to everyone who attended and contributed to all of the events especially OASIS members and Chilypep who have been instrumental in designing and developing this work going forwards. 

Working with local representatives

Back in May 2018 we invited MP for Barnsley East, Stephanie Peacock, to find out more about the work taking place in schools to support young people, their families and the whole school team when it comes to emotional health and wellbeing. Stephanie visited Netherwood Acadamy and met students and the team from MindSpace, the service set up to work in and with schools.