We Can Talk – mental health improvement for children and young people

ast month we saw the official launch of We Can Talk, a mental health quality improvement for children and young people (aged 12-25) in crisis that access our services. This is a Trust initiative set up to improve their experiences of attending hospital while in a mental health crisis.   

We haveco-produced two documents with young people’s participation for a quality improvement drive. A mental health passport, which is owned by the child or young person, and an emotional and wellbeing observation chart which is like a medical vital signs chart. It’s to be used as a “check in” with your patient and assesses risk and wellbeing.  The Aim is to use the documents Trust wide where these patients are being seen.

Would you know how to support a young person experiencing a mental health crisis?

It’s something anyone of us can encounter as part of our role, whether that’s the nursing or medical teams, allied health professionals, security, porters, reception or even hospitality staff. Our Trust now has access to the unique We Can Talk Core Curriculum, which can help develop your knowledge and skills when supporting young people in crisis.

This free online, interactive training has been developed with staff like you, mental health professionals and young people with lived experience of attending organisations like yours in mental health crisis. The training is 6 hours in total, in 1-hour modules, which can be saved and go back to.

For more information please contact Emma Perryman (project lead) or go directly to the website. ​