One of the core values of Greater Manchester’s Hidden Talent is to support young people to grow their confidence and wellbeing before we look to helping them enter employment, education or training. 42% of the young people on our programme have a mental health issue that limits their ability to work, so we know firsthand how much young people are struggling.
To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, 9th-15th May 2022, we spoke to one of our Talent Coaches, Eva Linder who works at Early Break in Bury, to find out how she supports young people suffering with mental health issues.
In July 2021, one in six children aged five to 16 were identified as having a probable mental health issue[1].
Eva highlighted the cycle that negatively impacts young people’s mental health from a young age. The young people that Eva works with often drop out of college without finishing their course and become isolated, especially when something such as autism or ADHD goes undiagnosed whilst they are at school:
“When it gets missed at school, and even through some schools are really good, when they go to college it’s a different ball game. If it’s not been done at school, what often happens is they drop out. Drop out of college, get stuck in their bedroom, and before we know it, they’ve been stuck in their bedroom for 2, 3 years – even before the pandemic started. The result now is that they can’t go out, they can’t speak to anyone, they panic – even going for appointments, they can’t speak the night before because they know they’ve got to go somewhere.”
“The amounts of times lads come in and say, I’m really lonely I just want a friend. I just want someone to talk to. The tears, the desperation, then the confidence goes, the self-worth goes..”
The theme of this year’s mental health awareness week is loneliness.
Loneliness is something that is affecting more and more of us in the UK and has had a huge impact on our physical and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic. Eva highlighted the impact that loneliness has on young people, particularly in young men, and how it can begin when young people aren’t supported during and after further education:
“The loneliness - it just spirals. That’s how it starts. But then that goes into physical stuff. They get up and gotta go somewhere, they’re not used to it, they’re gunna be physically sick. Thinking they’re gunna have a heart attack. It all just snowballs. The thought of anything... I had one lad who said, ‘I just sit and cry in my bedroom all the time’. 18.”
Eva explain how she encourages the young people she works with to attend group sessions to build up their self-confidence and ability to develop relationships:
“What I use to do, this worked really well, was to work with them one to one then I’d throw them into this group. Well they’d never been in a group before had they. For years they’ve been stuck in their house, their bedroom. There was a computer in one corner and some games on the table. I’d be in the group with them. They’d maybe sit at the computer, maybe choose some music, and you guarantee that somebody would go up and go, ‘I like that one, try this one’, or they’ll play Uno. They’ll talk and have a laugh, but it’s nothing personal that they’ll ask of each other. And that gave them the confidence then.”
“It’s about getting them to understand that feeling, so when they feel like that next time, what can we do to make that better”
Self-harm and young people
Eva supports young people to breakdown the triggers that cause them have negative feelings, and what they can do to recognise and deal with these feelings:
“It’s about them managing their self-harm. Making sure they tell somebody, distract themselves…tackling the suicide idealisation. I’m very upfront with them – do you want to die? People sometimes feel uncomfortable asking that question.”
“(I ask) are you going to hurt yourself? Have you self-harmed this week?... Which was your lowest point this week? I always try end on, what was your best point this week?... It’s about their mood and how they’re feeling; exploring their thoughts at the time (of the negative feelings), ask them when it was, what happened, when they had that thought, were they at home or school, in their bedroom? Just explore all of them thoughts.”
“Dealing with anger, anxiety... it’s about how you deal with them thoughts. If you can find something that works for one of the unhelpful thought processes and identify it to a feeling, that’s how they should deal with it – so when I feel like that, this is what I need to do...”
“I just think they’re all amazing - every single (young person) … I’ve seen it over the years. You always find something that they’re really good at. They’ve always got something to offer. Always.”
Entering employment and challenges
The purpose of Greater Manchester’s Hidden Talent is to support young people aged 16-24 into employment, education or training. It’s clear that lots of intensive support is often needed with some young people. Eva spoke about the challenges that young people suffering from mental issues face and why there are often so far from the workplace:
“(Because of) the loneliness (they have) gone into a spiral, have no self-worth – that’s when the mental health input (from a Talent Coach) needs to be done first, and then slowly add things in and build up. You try to put somebody who’s not been out their bedroom for two years into a fulltime job or a part time job. It’s not going to work.”
“All they’ve ever known is school, dropped out of college, maybe gone to college, all of a sudden they’re needed in at 8am... They’re not equipped for that anymore”
Eva also highlighted the importance of finding meaningful employment and opportunities:
“If you can find something that they’re interested in and not just shove them in anything. There’s no point. It’s finding where are these jobs. I had one that wanted to work on the stock exchange and I found this course in Manchester… He’s at Uni now doing finance!”
Greater Manchester’s Hidden Talent advocates for the need for longer term-support, some that Eva also touched upon:
“I think it should be the same person for 12 months, and at first lots of intense support… in that 12-month window, you’ve got time to do 10 steps back, 3 steps forward, 5 steps back, 2 steps forward”.
With longer term support, young people with mental health issues can be more appropriately supported into employment, training or education.
For support with your mental health visit here.
For more on Greater Manchester’s Hidden Talent visit here.
For more on Early Break visit here.
Greater Manchester's Hidden Talent is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund, and led by GMCVO.
The UK Community Renewal Fund is a UK Government programme for 2021/22. This aims to support people and communities most in need across the UK to pilot programmes and new approaches to prepare for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It invests in skills, community and place, local business, and supporting people into employment. For more information, visit here.