Young People

Going into hospital, either voluntarily or involuntarily, can be a worrying experience. If you have never been admitted to an inpatient mental health centre before, you will probably have lots of questions about what will happen and what you can expect. If you are under the age of 18, other factors may come into play which will likely prompt additional queries from yourself or your parents or guardians. You may not have any experience of mental health services, or it may be the first time away from home. The good news is that the mental health staff are there to support and care for you on your journey through the mental health system. They are there to help you get better. As the regulator of inpatient mental health services, the MHC wants to ensure that your stay is a positive one. We focus on providing the highest quality and most suitable mental health services for young people. In recent years, we have taken steps to help young people feel empowered and listened to when they engage with services:

• Working with key people and organisations such as young people, independent advocates, and mental health staff who work with young people, we developed a self-advocacy and rights-based guide called ‘The Headspace Toolkit’. The Toolkit is for young people in inpatient mental health services. It helps you to be as prepared and informed as possible about what to expect during your stay. The Toolkit:
  • it will inform you about your rights
  • provide you with practical information about being in hospital
  • it will show you how you can speak up for yourself
• The Toolkit comes with “Support Tools” including a set of forms designed to give you more control over your care and treatment. By filling out the Support Tools workbook and asking staff to read it and answer any questions you have, you will ensure that:
  • mental health staff and other adults hear you better
  • have your questions answered
  • know what is happening with your care, treatment and general circumstances as an inpatient
  • you will be able to work out what you want to happen with your care, treatment and circumstances
• The Toolkit contains a ‘Words You Might Hear’ section that explains unfamiliar terms in plain English because as healthcare terms are sometimes are confusing or difficult to understand. There is also a section describing people you might meet in hospital and what their job involves.
• We updated the Toolkit and Support Tools in 2024 and created a dedicated webpage for it: Headspace Toolkit.
• In 2019, we developed a project for service users across Ireland to update the MHC Board on what is happening in practice and provide input to our work. Organisations representing young people, such as SpunOut.ie, Jigsaw, Pieta House, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health Reform provide these updates.
• We monitor the admission of children and young people to inpatient mental health services. We are very clear that children should not be admitted to adult units except in exceptional circumstances. We welcome the reduction in children being admitted to adult units but we want to ensure children are getting the care and treatment they need in suitable units. We want a child’s first introduction to mental health services being somewhere specifically equipped to support them.
• Finally, we continually consider what could make the service better for children and young people. We make submissions to government departments for changes to legislation and policies. As the regulator of mental health services, we are concerned about our lack of oversight in some areas relating to children and young people and are trying to address this. Things that are particularly important to us are:
  • that services tell the child or young person what is going on at all stages of their care and treatment
  • that services hear from and listen to the child or young person’s views
  • that services involve the child or young person at all stages of their care and treatment
  • that government agencies work together to protect the rights of children and young people and improve services for them.