Getting Support

1 In 10 Young People experiences a mental health disorder

We know that our mental health changes all the time and lots of young people may find that at certain points in their lives they might need more support. Any changes in our lives can affect our mental health. If you are going through a transition (change) and could do with some support get in touch.

1 to 1 Transitions Support

We can offer young people going through a transition 12 weeks’ worth of focused support with one of our project workers. This provides safe, 1 to 1 time to talk and work on the things you want to work on, change and how to cope.

Types of Transition can include some of the things below, however everyone is an individual and your own transition will be personal to you:

Illness of a member of the family
Moving from young person to adult services
Changing friends
Death of a family member
Coming out as lesbian or gay
Starting a new school
Separation from parents
Diagnosis of Illness
New siblings
Diagnosis of disability

Moving house
Moving through year groups
Puberty
New step-parents
Entering care
Foster parents
First exams
First sexual experience
Living in a new country
Change of teacher
Living with the illness of a family member.

“Any new situation involves the loss of the old, known one. The beginning of something new means the end of something old and vice versa. The more unstructured, strange or unexpected the new situation is the more disorientated and unable to cope we are likely to feel. How well any one person deals with new situations depends in part upon their experiences and resilience levels. Good internalised experiences can help us to explore and tackle the unknown. They also lay the foundations for experiences yet to come, just as bad experiences leave their memory traces within us, both of which are rekindled repeatedly throughout our lives.”

(Young Minds- www.youngminds.org.uk)

Write with you

Peer support volunteers will write to young people who are struggling with mental health difficulties.

The pen pal scheme is about helping to support young people similar to each other with mental health problems. Volunteers will be someone they can write to for support during difficult times and to gain confidence in speaking to others. It is very similar to the peer mentoring but is suitable for young people who aren’t confident enough to speak face to face.

You will be sent a letter from a volunteer which will tell you a bit about them, and will be provided with stamped addressed envelopes to Newport Mind for you to write your reply.

Group Peer Mentoring Sessions

Young people who wish to access peer support can be invited to a peer group support session in their local area. The group support sessions will be hosted and run by trained peer support volunteers for a period of 6 weeks.

The groups will be loosely themed around health and wellbeing and this will be directed by the attendees and the peer support volunteers. This means that it can be flexible in line with current trends, seasons and issues the young people are facing at the time.

Courses

We also offer free self-management courses on a variety of different issues.

See course information