Do you know a young person that is struggling with their wellbeing or mental health? Perhaps the pressure and anxiety, created by COVID-19, has exacerbated underlying issues. e-wellbeing is our new mental health service for young people in Sussex. It provides advice, support, and a clear pathway to local services for any young person in need. Following a successful ‘soft launch’ in April this year, we’re now launching a marketing campaign aimed at both young people and their parents and carers to help raise awareness of our new digital platform.
As one of the South East’s biggest providers of counselling services (YMCA Dialogue), we’ve been working on the development of e-wellbeing for over a year. However, due to the increasingly negative impact COVID-19 is having on young people’s mental health, we’ve been working hard to bring the original launch date forward. This has been aided by funding from Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, alongside support from the NHS Sustainability & Transformation Plan.
e-wellbeing is different from other websites, in that it poses a series of questions to help guide young people to the appropriate content. It provides young people with self-help guidance and information about different aspects of mental health difficulties and supports them to make the decision about whether they may need help from a professional service. Crucially, they will then be connected with information about services in their local area.
It is expected that e-wellbeing will have a range of impacts, including supporting more young people to develop skills to improve their mental health or maintain positive mental health, whilst providing faster access to the right service for children and young people. It should also ensure higher rates of appropriate referrals to existing mental health services, and, in doing, should reduce pressure on frontline services, including GP surgeries and A&E.
