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Aware: Mon 22 Aug 2022
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Two members of the Welsh Youth Parliament have spoken out about inconsistencies and problems with mental health services and encourage young people in Wales to respond to their new query.
Keira Bailey-Hughes and Georgia Miggins have been sharing their experiences with failure to access mental health support.
Keira from Gwynedd and Georgia from Swansea spoke about their concerns to encourage young people to speak up about the issues they face.
They are also urging young people in Wales to contribute to the Welsh Youth Parliament Mental Health Survey and how problems can be supported and even prevented in the future.
The survey asks young people about mental health provision across the country and the survey will run into the fall.
Members of the Youth Parliament will then use these findings to campaign for changes and improvements in mental health support in Wales.
Keira Bailey-Hughes says the mental health service they received was so inconsistent due to intense anxiety that their school attendance dropped significantly.
Keira said: “Having been unsuccessful in getting any counseling I started mindfulness sessions which didn’t help.
“Once the lockdown started, it took a year to get a new referral and I was left at the back of the queue.
“If it wasn’t for the fantastic counselor at my school, I still feel like I’d be flipping through the system. Sadly, that support only extended until I finished year 11 and I’m back in the same position.”
“However, even with the counselor at school, because my attendance had dropped so much, accessing support was not easy, and sometimes the idea of going to school was the catalyst for my anxiety and depression.”
Georgia Miggins, 18, says that because of her autism, her anxiety remains undiagnosed because staff don’t treat the issues as separate entities.
She claims that because of how her autism manifests, her anxiety was not diagnosed by medical professionals; sometimes citing reasons such as her appearance being well cared for.
“I felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously and that my autism was being used as a barrier to me getting treatment for my mental health,” Georgia said.
“I felt like I was going round and round in the system for years before I was even diagnosed.
“At one point they even told me that because I was well cared for, spoke well and wasn’t visibly distressed, there was nothing they could do to help me.
“My experience shows that there needs to be much better mental health services for people with mental health problems and people with disabilities.”
Surveys can be completed here: youth parliament.senedd.wales
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