Ensuring that the best mental health services are available for all young people in Dorset is a priority for NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group and our partner organisations.
To help us shape the future of these services we have been speaking to local communities, young people, their families and staff working in mental health teams across the county.
As part of the ‘Your Mind – Your Say’ campaign launched in February 2020, we carried out an online survey and met with a wide range of groups to capture their views and experiences of mental health services. Young people’s engagement groups, school pupils, college students, learning disability groups, professionals and parents were among the many groups we met.
The campaign used visual graphics specially designed with young people to appeal to young people. The opportunities to be involved were promoted widely through social media and online channels by our partner NHS, local authority and voluntary sector organisations. At the suggestion of young people, Instagram was used for the first time. Healthwatch Dorset also promoted the campaign and carried out their own complementary research.
We asked people what they felt was good about Dorset’s mental health services, what they felt could be better and what they felt would make the biggest difference to services in the future.
The response to our survey and from the people we met with was fantastic. There was a passion in everyone that took part in this work to get local mental health services right for young people in Dorset. We want to thank everyone who took the time to meet with us and to share their views through our survey.
We are now in the implementation stage of the project, using your valuable feedback to inform our plans and improve aspects of the services. We have been working with children, young people, their families, staff and other stakeholders to do this.
