How can mental health services best support young people impacted by family violence?
This was one of the questions posed in a recent Mind research mini conference designed to improve outcomes for cohorts who are exhibiting lower outcomes in sub-acute settings.
Youth, women and gender diverse people were three cohorts Mind outcomes data has identified as both entering and exiting its sub-acute services with comparatively higher levels of psychological distress.
Family violence is one of the main reasons young people seek support from youth mental health services, said guest speaker headspace Greensborough Service Manager Jacqueline Thompson-Bennetts.
However, family conflict can be difficult to resolve without acknowledgement from the young person’s family.
“Family members can deny intervention from family violence support services so, often times, a young person finishes their engagement with headspace and then their mental health gets worse. They struggle to cope at home and there aren’t support services to pick them back up again,” she said.
“As mental health providers we have to do more research into how we can respond to this group because their family situation isn’t going to change. We need to give young people the tools to increase their self-confidence and resilience to live a life that will be free of violence – research shows that family violence is often repeated by young people later on in life.”