Aviva Community Fund has provided £1,507 of match funding
Free Mental Health Counselling 11-25 year olds
Newbury, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Due to overwhelming demand we want to implement a digital psycho-education software to help more vulnerable young people who are suffering.
Increasing numbers of young people are suffering from declining mental health and the demand on our services means we must implement a solution which enables us to help more of those in desperate need.
We are a registered charity that provides vital access to mental health support and counselling for young people aged 11-25. Each year we provide over 4,000 vital counselling sessions to over 500 young people free of charge. Our services provide critical early intervention and can not only have a significantly positive immediate impact on young people's mental health and well-being , but also offer longer term benefits as they progress through life.
There has never been a greater demand for youth mental health services. The government body CAHMS which provides mental health services has a waiting list for under 18's of 1 to 2 years. Time to Talk offer an assessment in 2 weeks and aims to provide the first counselling session within 12 weeks free of charge. We have seen a dramatic increase in referrals (as many as 25 in a single week compared to less than 10 a week before Covid) - this has led to a longer waiting list for our services. We currently have over 100 young people on our waiting list.
Our counsellors are increasingly seeing a greater complexity of presentations, high rates of anxiety, depression and self harming, as well as eating disorders. Time to Talk's services provide critical early intervention for young people, helping them see a way out of their desperate situation. Our counselling not only has a significantly positive immediate impact on mental health and well-being but also offers longer term benefits and coping mechanisms to help in later life.
Time to Talk has reached a critical point where we no longer have the necessary infrastructure to deal with the levels of referrals and demand for our services. If changes are not made young people will have to wait longer to get the help they need.
We are seeking funds to introduce a digital mental health platform - Silver Cloud - this is supported by the NHS and will allow us to offer easier access to services, offer shorter waiting times and a wider range of support services appropriate to the various needs of those who are referred to us or refer themselves.
We will still offer free face to face counselling where appropriate but will also be able to offer immediate online support during the waiting list period which is vital for the young who find weeks feels like years when they are suffering from anxiety or other such mental health issues. Silver Cloud will also offer interventions at the beginning and end of treatment pathways, ensuring young people are supported from the earliest possible opportunity, and will offer additional support to parents or other members of the individuals support network, also critical for successful ongoing recovery.
The dramatic increase in referrals to our service from GP's recently makes the introduction of this additional support critical.
This project successfully funded on 7th December 2021