Mind Matters

The problem is that while there are risk factors that could send anybody into a depressive state, such as unemployment, homelessness, a broken home and drink and drug abuse, men will not reach out for help in the same way that women tend to.

But now a pioneering new project has been launched in Bedfordshire to help ensure that young males aged 13 to 19 can get help long BEFORE a mental health problem becomes a crisis.

To do this, it is targeting those people who work in services that these high risk young men are already accessing such as teachers and those working in Youth Services and Youth Offending Teams and giving them the skills to identify and then deal with mental health issues.

So the main theme of this pilot scheme, called ‘Bedfordshire Breakout’, is prevention rather than working with young men who are already at crisis point. As such, it is providing free training to 30 professionals within Bedfordshire who already work on the frontline with young men, but not in a mental health capacity.

Debbie Adger, Bedfordshire Breakout Co-ordinator explains how young men become at risk and how this scheme targets them.

"Adolescence is a very transitory state where all young people are searching for an identity" she says. "But a young man will often not speak to anybody about it and can lead to a feeling of isolation and hopelessness.

"Females are much more emotive and more comfortable talking about their feelings" she continues. "Men see things more in black and white. They don't want people to tell them they are sad, they want to be told how they can get over it.

"But at the same time, young men don't reach out. The current referral system into psychological services requires young men to go to their GPs initially. But there is evidence that they do not do this."

Train

So the idea of this scheme is to train up the professionals that they DO come into contact with. 

"Many professionals have expressed their concerns that during their everyday work with these young men, issues are arising about depression and self-harm which front-line staff are just not equipped to deal with" continues Debbie.

Bedfordshire Breakout

"For example, those who access an unemployment centre run a high risk of depression but while the frontline staff can deal with unemployment, they are not trained to deal with depression.

"In this way, we can train up a person that they have come to trust, to help."

Champions

Debbie also explains that they are not advocating that these professionals will become experts in mental health, rather that they become 'champions' within their own organisation for their colleagues and the young men who they come into contact with.

Each participant on the training will be developing an Action Plan that will hope to address specific issues in their own organisations around improving mental health for young men and Bedfordshire Breakout will be giving them each £500 to take their work forward. In this way it is hoped that the work undertaken by the project will be sustained into the future.

“The overall aim is to promote a better understanding of young men’s mental health issues and make services more accessible to people who are often reluctant to share problems and seek professional help when distressed” she continues.

“We know that young men are a difficult group to reach in terms of health services generally and mental health services in particular. Enabling professionals who work with young men to have a greater understanding of their health needs should help to ensure a smoother journey for young men who are experiencing difficult times.

"The outcome being that front-line staff 'hold on' to these young men rather than let them go feeling hopeless" she adds.

Identify

Another key thing is that staff are being trained to identify achievable steps to help people change things rather than telling young men what to do. In doing so, they are empowering them, rather than dictating to them.

"Breaking it down into steps is also a very male way of doing things. It makes it very black and white.

"It's very easy to get into a circle of depression and this helps young men to be practical about getting out of it and look at all the options.

"The professionals are saying 'You can do this - with my help'. And their 'clients' eventually feel that they've solved a problem and gain more confidence at the same time."

"If we can catch one with that method, then we can stop one person from being depressed, and the scheme will have worked."

_{*Office for National Statistics on the Samaritans Web site.}