Agenda item

The committee is conducting a review into Mental Health - in conjunction with Healthy Communities scrutiny committee. As part of this the committee will consider the Mental Health Social Care Review.

6.1  Councillor Jasmine Ali explained that this item is part of a joint review of Mental Health by the Education & Children’s Service committee and the Healthy Communities scrutiny committee.  A recent meeting was held with officers and they explained that there are two documents: the Mental Health Social Care Review ( enclosed with the agenda)  and the Joint Mental Health Strategy, which is still in development. The Healthy Communities committee is looking at the strategy; this will be taken within the next three months.

6.2  David Mclean, coordinator & Rachel, youth representative, from Southwark Group of Tenant Organisations (SGTO) youth forum presented the SGTO Youth Forum tabled report.

6.3  David introduced the youth forum as a new initiative of SGTO, which has enabled many young people to get involved - both with the tenant & resident forums and with relevant issues affecting young people, such as Mental Health.

6.4  Rachel emphasised that Mental Health is a pervasive issue, that does not only effect people who are homeless or in the youth justice system. She said Mental Health is something that affects all of us to a certain extent. People within BME communities can affected by the different values of mainstream society, and their heritage culture, and are also more vulnerable to economic and social policy shifts, such as the banning of fast food takeaways near schools. Whilst the policy has good aims low income deprived communities maybe particularly adversely affected.  Policy shifts can negatively affect communities which have less representation and transferable skills. There is a need to make forums like this affective so that people are listened to and don't experience a brick wall.

6.5   She stressed the importance of getting behind labels and giving tools to people.

6.6  David emphasised the needs of second generation immigrants. He also spoke about the need to link housing and wellbeing. He suggested asking questions such as do young have a place a study at home? He asked if a housing representative is on the Health & Wellbeing board, and commented that Homelessness is a key issue for young people experiencing difficult Mental Health. The committee chair commented that the Health & Wellbeing Board is led by the council; this means scrutiny is well placed to influence its composition.

6.7   David reported that the Youth Forum have recommended a youth steering board with representatives so the groups can look at issues organically.  He said the SGTO Youth Forum & steering group want to be become a data rich research place. He reported that the lead cabinet member for children’s service, Councillor Victoria Mills, has agreed this in in principle. He explained that the proposal is that the steering group would be a place to solve problems.

6.8   Rachael recommended that there is a need to look at cultures that could impact on good mental health: such as men not sharing problems, drug abuse and the academic pressure that young people experience.

6.9   Gwen Kennedy, CCG Commissioning Director, commented that hearing the voice of young people is very important. She reported that the Joint Mental Health strategy has been started, however the CCG and council do need to ensure the engagement process is in place to pick up those issues.

6.10  A committee member said that in a previous job he held it was rare to receive applications for support from people from the Chinese community as people tended to look after each other; however he had concerns about hidden issues. He commented that he did empathise with the difficulties of experiencing and negotiating dual cultures, and commented that communities that appear self contained can be harder to reach.

6.11   Rachel responded that young people are often more aware of emotions than older generations who were less liable to speak about their emotions. The inward facing issues are more complex - there is an issue of representation and visibility of BME communities in the wider community.

6.12  Members recommended hearing the voices of Southwark Young Carer and Speakerbox. David undertook to do that in the proposed steering group.

6.13   A committee member thanked Rachel & David for the presentation and the issues raised. He went on to comment that men not expressing emotions can be released in violence that affects wives and children. He said that some communities,  such as South Asian  and Sierra Leone,  can have a culture of  not speaking out  , can  be very self sustaining , but  also not  access services when there are problems .