Charity strives to bridge gap in mental health services for young people in Milton Keynes

Counselling charity YiS aims to include more types of mental health support to local young people and professionals that support them.

It has been working behind the scenes for more than a year to increase the number of young people it can help.

“Everybody knows that young people’s mental health support in MK is not what it should be”, says YiS’s CEO Gareth Eglinton-Pacitti.

“We all have a duty to listen to what young people are saying, and do our best to provide the help and support they want and deserve. We know many excellent services locally that provide quality support but there is not enough for every young person who needs help.”

CAMHS, the NHS mental health service for young people, is full to bursting in MK and waiting lists are long.

Gareth said: “Our free counselling service has run for years and provides one to one support with professional volunteer counsellors, but really we’d like to prevent people from needing counselling in the first place. Not only is prevention better than cure, but these sessions cost £25 to £50 each and are getting harder to find funding for.

"Our volunteer counsellors are second to none. They have a 99 per cent approval rate from clients but they are working with harder and more complex issues than ever before, which means some of the clients that present less risk are waiting for far longer than anyone would like."

Gareth said Milton Keynes Council is currently discussing awarding YiS £50,000 in April as part of next year’s budget. If it passes we’ll be able to fully launch a brand new Education and Training arm to provide talks, workshops and more to local young people and the professionals that work with them.

This work has already started and since January YiS has provided mental health and wellbeing sessions for more 150 young people in local schools and community venues. This is thanks to Antonietta Moch, described by YiS as their ' education and training guru.'

Schools and groups can email Antonietta at [email protected] if they are interested in finding out more.

YiS is coming to the end of some funding from MK Community Foundation which has enabled them to develop services and work closer with local parish councils, schools, Watling Street GP Network, and organisations such YMCA, MK College, Career Sparks.

We are incredibly grateful to the Community Foundation for the strategic grant that has helped us develop over the last two years. We’re also really excited about a new set of funding they have provided that will help us to provide a bespoke service for YMCA residents in Milton Keynes,2 said Gareth.

YiS are also working with Healthwatch MK to collect information about young people’s experiences of mental health support in MK, both the good, and the not so good. Healthwatch MK will use the information to influence change and get an accurate picture of real experiences.

If you have something to say visit www.mkyis.org.uk and fill in a form.

Michelle Smyth, YiS’s Chair of Trustees is keen to hear from people and organisations that want to work with them.

She said: “We know that young people in Milton Keynes benefit from our service, we have great feedback from them and clinical data to back it up, but we are unable to do everything we would like and see everyone that needs it. If you would like to look at working with us or are interested in helping us develop new services we’d love to know - get in touch!”

You can contact YiS on 01908 604700, [email protected] or follow @YiSMentalHealth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

YiS offers a variety of mental health services for young people, including a BACP-accredited counselling service. The services are delivered in informal local chttp://@YiSMentalHealthommunity settings and schools, which are both friendly and welcoming.

The charity now offers comprehensive education options for young people as well as training for local professionals interested in supporting young people’s mental health.