Meet the YMHF Co-Founders!
Watch this video to meet the Youth Mental Health Foundation Co-Founders: Claire, Joel, and Jade!
Click here to join our FREE online course to better support a young person struggling with mental health.
Who are we?
The Youth Mental Health Foundation is a Devon-based not-for-profit organisation working with young people, families, and the wider community to address the crisis in youth mental health. We are addressing an urgent need for preventative education to build resilience in children, alongside early intervention strategies to prevent mental health challenges from escalating. We are directly supporting families whose young people are in crisis with their mental health, through in-person and online provision. We work with communities across Devon and have a growing national and international reach. The impact of our work is more resilient young people who are less likely to experience severe mental health challenges, and more families who are empowered and equipped to support their child’s recovery from mental health struggles.
Our organisation was founded, and is led, by parents who have lived experience of supporting their young people through significant mental health challenges. We are directly supporting families whose young people are in crisis with their mental health, through in-person and online provision. We work with communities across Devon and have a growing national and international reach. The impact of our work is more resilient young people who are less likely to experience severe mental health challenges, and more families who are empowered and equipped to support their child’s recovery from mental health struggles.
What do we do?
We have provided support to thousands of parents via our free, online course ‘The Horizon Plan’, which teaches our clinical process to support young people struggling with mental health. The Horizon Plan is recommended by NHS trusts and NHS Recovery Colleges across the UK, including Devon Partnership NHS Trust, and currently has 1024 parents and carers enrolled: “It has been a lifeline for me at the right time” (Parent)
We have partnered with over 100 schools and youth clubs in Devon/Cornwall to support the mental health of young people in our communities. Our hugely successful assemblies and workshops have been designed and delivered by Jade Sutton, aged 19, who has lived experience of struggling with, and recovering from, significant mental health challenges. Our assemblies and workshops aim to improve mental health resilience and self-esteem in young people and increase awareness and acceptance of neurodiversity.
Since 2022, we have run two support groups for parents/carers of young people struggling with mental health, through fortnightly, in-person group sessions. The success of this project has been independently monitored and evaluated by the University of Exeter’s Department of Psychology, which has led to us being funded to deliver support via Zoom to two new cohorts of parents in Torbay in 2024.
Why is there a need for our work?
There is a national crisis in youth mental health and an acute local need for mental health support services in Devon. Anxiety, depression, self-harm, and other mental health struggles are on the rise among young people, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study published by the NHS shows that 1 in 5 children and young people in England aged 8 to 25 had a probable mental disorder in 2023. According to the Devon Suicide Prevention Statement and Action Plan 2023-24, “the suicide rate for Devon is statistically significantly higher than the rate for England, and is slightly higher than the rate for the South West.”
There is a local need for support in Torbay due to the region’s high levels of suicide, as well as the significantly higher rate of hospital admissions for young people due to self-harm compared with the rest of the country. Hospital admissions as a result of self-harm amongst 10- to 24-year-olds in Torbay have been significantly higher than England – just under 1000 compared to the national average of 400.
Due to huge pressures on statutory services, many young people’s mental health and social care needs go unrecognised and unmet (Lennox, C. and Khan, L, 2012). This gap in statutory provision was identified through lived experience of guiding our teenage daughter’s recovery from anxiety, depression, self-harm, and eating disorders. As services are overstretched, it is often only the most serious cases (i.e. suicide attempts) being admitted for immediate care. CAMHS “has seen increases in demand overall since the start of the pandemic” (Walker, M., 2022, ‘Developments, Challenges and Opportunities in Mental Health in Devon’). In 2022, children in mental health crisis spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E units in England.
Families are trying to support their young person in mental health crisis without help or guidance. It is widely recognised that support is preferable at the earliest onset of mental health difficulties to prevent a young person’s deterioration towards self-harm and suicidal ideation, and “that more needs to be done in terms of prevention and early intervention” (Safer Devon).
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