Trust to host national Big Youth Forum Meet Up
Young people from up and down the country are set to meet at the Royal Derby Hospital tomorrow (Saturday, 10 November) to talk about the improvements that they’d most like to see to the National Health Service.
More than 120 youngsters will be attending the second ever Big Youth Forum Meet Up, with members from 14 different NHS Youth Forums gathering to discuss the key issues for young people today.
The chosen subject for this year’s national conference will be the extremely important topic of the mental health and wellbeing of young people and the stigma that can be attached to the topic.
East London rapper Nick Brewer will be the guest speaker at this year’s event and will talk about his personal experiences growing up with anxiety, whilst the event will also provide a forum for youngsters to offer their views on what they think could be done more by their Trusts to support people.
Derbyshire Children’s Hospital Youth Forum is jointly hosting this year’s event, with all aspects of the day planned by Youth Forum members, for young people.
Youth Forum member Tobi Wong, 15, said: “Roughly around 50% of mental health problems manifest by the age of 14 but most don’t have a reliable outlet to discuss it. Mental health is an incredibly important subject that for young people isn’t talked about nearly enough. But the Future is Young! By working together we can help expand the resources and reduce the stigma. The things we can achieve through Youth Forums are incredible and it’s great to see groups from all across the country gather with this big topic in mind.”
The Youth Forum is made up of young patients and young people aged 11-18 that have spent time in our hospitals and meets every month to discuss the services that are most important to them and the changes they would like to see.
From providing quicker Wi-Fi in children’s wards, to highlighting the issues young people can face when transitioning from paediatric to adult services, members have been involved in a number of different campaigns aimed at improving patient care.
Youth Worker Eleanor Gambini said: “We are so happy to be hosting the second ever Big Youth Forum Meet Up event in collaboration with Nottingham University Hospitals Youth Forum this year. Young people's mental health and wellbeing is something our Youth Forums are extremely passionate about and it was clear from the off-set that this would be at the very centre of our day. The young people have chosen ‘The Future is Young’ as the tagline for the event, which not only recognises the power of Youth Forums but also highlights the work that still needs to be done to improve mental health support for young people in the UK. Every aspect of the day has been planned by young people, for young people, with an aim to offer essential skills to care for their own mental health and wellbeing.”