Policy Proposal 7: Bring all the stakeholders in young people’s mental health services around the same table

School staff members, medical and support service providers, parents, young people, and charities should be able to collaborate in a positive way to support young people seeking mental health support.

• Young people should get an art box to help them create their shared information care record, with an array of literary, digital and journaling options. They can then use this personalised record of their information in future encounters with mental health or medical professionals.

• Mental health professionals should be required to offer options for young people to record their sessions (in various ways) at every intake.

• There should be an option for young people to select to add this shared care record to their official records.

• There should be a joint annual review of notes / records, by young people, health professionals and advocates together.

• There is already work underway to develop a self-directed medical passport, but that will take time and resources to implement; this could be an intermediary step that’s applied across Greater Manchester. We could use tools that organisations such at 42nd St already have in place, as models. One model could be a timeline that young people can create at the beginning of their treatment to identify goals and mark progress.