Suzannah caught up with Emma Lyons, Employability Team Leader at People First and Youth Worker at Carlisle Youth Zone, to find out what she thinks about mental health in young people.
Emma has worked for Carlisle Youth Zone for some time, and the Healthwatch Cumberland team recently had the opportunity to see her in action during some workshops for our youth mental health project, R.I.S.E.
In three words, Emma described being a youth worker as fun, challenging and rewarding:
“I think it’s fun because you can get involved with lots of different activities. I enjoy seeing what’s happening with the young people and playing games with them. The role can be quite challenging as it’s a different world that young people live in nowadays. But it’s also very rewarding as well because of the relationships you build. When you get to know the young people, they go to you for advice and support. It’s a different kind of relationship to parents and teachers.”
The Youth Zone is full of opportunities for young people to have fun and meet friends:
“The young people can get involved with anything they like at Carlisle Youth Zone. The space and sessions are tailored to what they want. We try to make whatever they want to do happen. They love football, cooking and arts and crafts. The senior club mostly love to hang out and socialise.”
Young people clearly have a very fun time at Carlisle Youth Zone, but according to Emma, the impact the sessions have on the young people runs a bit deeper:
“Youth Zone has a big impact on the kids. The conversations we have with the young people are often about less typical topics like parents, bullying, and how people feel about their mental health and physical appearance.”
It’s clear that the Youth Zone plays a key role in supporting young people. Amongst a climate of growing concern for young people’s mental health, we asked Emma for her thoughts on the challenges young people are facing and how Carlisle Youth Zone can help:
“Youth mental health is a bit of a problem, and I think that social media has a huge impact. There is a lot of negativity online, lots of falling out and some dangerous situations. It can be hard sometimes to catch up with what has happened online in between their sessions at Youth Zone. There are also lots of generational differences. Being young now is like a different world and we need to be able to try and understand it. The Youth Workers need to have professional curiosity.”
“I think when young people don’t have enough support, they can grow into adults who might struggle to manage their mental health and who have a lack of boundaries. When young people come to the Youth Zone, we can support them to regulate and understand their emotions and accept that it’s okay to feel a certain way. We help young people learn accountability and how their emotions can affect their behaviour.”
We asked Emma what she thinks is needed to support young people’s health better:
“I think there is definitely a need for more places like this where there are safe, trusted adults who young people can talk to about their problems. I wish I’d had someone like that to talk through things with. It’s important to have a trusted adult who isn’t a parent or a teacher. There are some things that the young people don’t feel as comfortable talking to parents about and there needs to be another safe person they can go to.”
“There needs to be more education around mental health and boundaries. I don’t think mental health is recognised as important enough compared to education. Most of the young people don’t talk to us much about education as they want to talk to us about other things like life and relationships. I don’t think things like consent are spoken about enough in schools.”
Emma had some words of encouragement for anyone interested in youth work:
“Just do it and get involved. I accidentally fell into the job unexpectedly and I really love it. I had always liked working with kids, but the Youth Zone has really impacted me and given me confidence. If you’re not sure whether you would like it, you could try volunteering.”
Are you someone who works with young people?
We would love to know your thoughts on youth mental health.
Let us know via email to: [email protected]