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What are we doing to our children? Young Adults Talk about the Relationship between Childhood/teen Adversity and later Mental Health CrisesDownload this presentation - 269KB PDF PresentersHeather Barnett, PhD,Hilary Lapsley, PhD Mental Health Commission, Wellington, New Zealand with Shona Clarke The Mental Health Commission recently conducted an investigation into young adults' first experience of a disabling mental health crisis and first use of adult mental health services. The project involved 40 interviews with mainly Maori, Pakeha and Pacific young adults (aged 18-29) in urban and rural settings. The research focused on young adults' accounts of their mental health experiences including the identification of factors that contributed to later mental health crises. Narrative and thematic analysis allowed us to describe the journeys taken by young adults through their talk about the development of mental health problems in relation to childhood and teen experiences. In this presentation we focus on the young adults' accounts of adverse and/or traumatic childhood and teen experiences and the subsequent development of mental health difficulties. In particular, we highlight the negative mental health impacts of childhoods and teen lives characterised by a lack of safety, security and predictability. Understanding factors that young adults say contribute to their mental health difficulties is critical to prevention, and the provision of quality early intervention and other services responsive to the needs of young people throughout their child/teen lives and into young adulthood. |
