A 17-YEAR-OLD JCG student has been praised for carrying out research into the mental health of young Islanders.
Hannah Read delivered the findings of her own report – titled An Investigation into the Relationship Between Mental Health and LGBTQ+ Identity in Young People in Jersey – to a room of mental-health professionals, education-sector workers and charity representatives.
One attendee, Daniela Raffio, from the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department, commended the teenager for her investigation, which concluded that LGBTQ+ young people in the Island had ‘significantly’ poorer mental health than cisgender (those whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponded with their birth sex) and heterosexual people.
She said: ‘We have been looking at this issue so we were delighted that Hannah has helped us to progress research and also think about ways to engage the voice of young people in this work moving forward.’
She added: ‘It is hugely impressive. I was blown away with her email that came out inviting us all to the presentation. I did not know she was doing that, organising it all, undertaking the research.’
The Year 13 student, who hopes to study medicine at university, also volunteers with Youthful Minds, an organisation which aims to tackle stigma associated with children and young Islanders’ mental health.
Ms Raffio said: ‘A lot of the work we are doing in government at the moment around transforming services is very much to talk to those people who use the services, so young people, children and families. As part of the wider redesign of mental health we have been talking to Hannah and others in Youthful Minds – as well as the Youth Parliament – to understand what the pressing needs are and to develop those services with them.’
She added that one of the recommendations in Hannah’s report – calling for training for mental-health professionals around LGBTQ+ issues – was already a focus area.
‘We have got training being rolled out to mental-health professionals and others,’ she added. ‘It is wider than specifically mental-health professionals; it is anybody who would be engaging with children and young people where those issues might come up – the Youth Service, for example.’
Meanwhile, the government has confirmed a partnership with the Anna Freud Centre – a UK-based mental-health charity – to review and improve the wellbeing of children and young people in the Island.
The Anna Freud Centre has been commissioned to develop and implement an independent review of current mental-health support and provision in Jersey schools, and will then work with settings to develop individual actions plans.
