All grantees within the Young Women’s Mental Health programme come together as a cohort and build a peer learning support community that helps them share experiences, challenges and good practice. Sam Anderson is our Peer Learning Support Facilitator who has worked closely with our first cohort since 2022. We asked Sam to explain what the peer learning support model looks like in practice, why it’s so important and what she’s learnt so far with our grantees.
What is a peer learning support model? And how do you build one?
My role is to build a peer learning support community or a ‘Community of Practice’ – which is all about bringing together grantees so they can connect, share skills and experiences, and consider wider influences on their work. The grantees and I co-designed this community during a two-day meet up – so it is led by what is important to them – in this case the desire for high quality mental health care for young women. I support by creating the conditions for trusting relationships to thrive and holding space for the group to discuss relevant topics and ideas. Alongside an annual in person meeting, we also meet regularly online, which has really helped build that sense of community.
We’ve explored many aspects of their work, for instance what commonalities and differences there are from their focuses and backgrounds working with young women. We also explore successes, challenges and learnings across their work – taking a holistic approach. Another recent focus has been on self-care, asking how those working in the organisations take care of themselves and how they support self-care for the young woman they work with.
Why peer learning support is important
The opportunity to come together regularly is so important. For many organisations, staff often don’t get the chance to pause, staff can be isolated and working in difficult contexts. To be able to experience some camaraderie and some lightness amongst the heaviness is important. It’s also powerful for folks to see they aren’t on their own, that other organisations have similar struggles and that many of these struggles are structural issues and not specific to one organisation.
Learnings and observations from the cohort so far
The cohort have shared many learnings and trends– here are some of the standout ones. I’ve heard how many young women are being failed by statutory mental health services. There are long waiting lists, and when young women are seen, they are being rejected, have a poor service experience, or their mental health needs are not deemed serious enough.
In reverse, I’ve observed the importance of non-statutory organisations in supporting young women’s mental health. The voluntary sector has demonstrated its ability to build relationships and trust. Workers at voluntary organisations are often able to be more flexible than statutory colleagues so can demonstrate to young women that they care and in turn that encourages young women to show up to services.
It’s of vital importance that young women are listened to and feel heard – and services offer a safe space without judgement or shaming. – Sam Anderson
I’ve also heard that in the current cost of living crisis a lot of the grantee’s work centres around young women’s basic needs – accessing warmth, food and safety – and how there has been an increase in sex work to fulfil some of these needs. Having had poor previous experiences, there is a sense by young women that the wider system is broken and that nothing can change – so sometimes there’s a reluctance for young women to articulate their needs or access support.
One positive trend I’ve noticed is how creative activities offered to young women earlier can be very effective. For instance, activities like jewellery making or putting together a Self-Care kit, invite young women to own the space they are coming into, feel less overwhelmed about talking about their mental health and spark conversations that might not have happened otherwise.
Taking an age and gender specific approach
What’s become clear for many organisations was a need for an age and gender approach. That has been underlined by how quickly the services filled up and how well they continue to be used. For some grantees, the first year has allowed them to test out this new approach and they’ve had lots of young women step in and use the service. For others, there’s still a challenge to articulate their unique offer and how to have the necessary conversations about their work with colleagues and others.
One key recognition was the difference between a 16- to 19-year-old and a 19- to 25-year-old. Grantees shared how it’s quite a wide age range and there’s a need for organisations to flex their approach accordingly. A grantee described their approach to different ages was to think about it as transition stages rather than specific ages. That echoes what I’ve heard in other work elsewhere and how rather than getting hung up on ages, you recognise what the transition status is and focus support accordingly.
Our thanks go to Sam for sharing her learnings and experience of working with our grantees. Follow Sam on Twitter.
Find out more about the Young Women’s Mental Health grants.
Feature image: our first cohort of Young Women’s Mental Health grantees at their first meet up in Manchester 2022.