Call for youth workers to tackle gang mental health problems
Neil Puffett
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Youth workers should receive basic mental health training as part of a shake-up of services in order to support young people in gangs, MPs have been told.
The home affairs select committee heard that a significant proportion of young people involved with gangs and youth violence have undiagnosed mental health problems.
Charlie Howard, who founded community-based mental health charity Mac-UK, told the committee that existing mental health services are not configured for young people living chaotic lives and who have a mistrust of professionals.
“I think the services that we provide work for some young people but my experience and research shows they are absolutely not working for young people who are gang involved,” Howard said.
“Often these people have brilliant relationships with professionals on the front line such as youth workers, support workers, and others. They trust them, yet those workers don’t have the resources to begin to address mental health needs.
“We need to add value and capacity-build the frontline workforce so that they feel confident and equipped to identify and have basic-level mental health conversations.”
Howard added that services young people are then referred to must be able to go out into the community to see young people where they feel comfortable – such as benches, buses, or even stairwells.
“Services need to be flexible around chaotic lives,” she said.
“They shouldn’t say ‘we need you to turn up at 2pm and if you don’t come three times in a row you will be discharged’.
“Instead they should say 'I will be sitting at McDonald's on Tuesday afternoon between 2pm and 6pm – it's up to you if you come'.
“We need to radically rethink what we do.”
Lorraine Khan, associate director of the children and young people programme at the Centre for Mental Health, said mental health problems can be a factor for both boys and girls getting involved with gangs.
She said more needs to be done to identify issues at an earlier stage and address them promptly.
“We ought to be taking a child and youth development approach to prevent young people drifting into gang involvement,” she said.
“We are still learning about the risk factors but we know that when they start to multiply, it increases the chance of the young person getting involved in gangs and getting stuck in gangs.”
She said young women in gangs need easy access to safe relationships that help them to build their self-esteem as well as a “safe exit route”.
“It’s not easy for girls to leave gangs,” she added.
The select committee's inquiry on gangs and youth crime is evaluating the first year of the government's Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme and considering what more needs to be done to make young people feel safer.
