Mental Health is a Universal Right. World Mental Health Day 2023.

When designing and delivering our services, MYPAS works hard to ensure that the rights of children and young people are protected as well as meaningfully involving young people and their families in our service design.

Such an approach seeks to ensure that our services are available, accessible, acceptable, of high quality, and participative, with a focus on respecting the rights and individuality of young people seeking support.

This is true of all of our services – our LGBT+ Service, our Drug and Alcohol Service as well as our therapeutic services – Art Therapy and Counselling.

Understanding children’s and young people’s rights empowers them to develop and achieve their full potential, with positive mental health being a crucial element. Children and young people, just like anyone else, have the right to enjoy the best possible health and it is our mission to provide children and young people with the best support needed to foster positive well-being.

When we talk about universal human rights, all children and young people have the right to:

• Do things, like be involved in decisions about themselves
• Have things, like food, housing and healthcare
• Be treated in a certain way, for example – to be protected from abuse

It’s important to understand what children and young people’s rights are so we can make sure they are being treated fairly, and that they have the protection and support they need.

Using a human rights-based approach ensures that all MYPAS services are:

Available: Mental health services must be available to everyone who needs them. At MYPAS, all children and young people aged 10-21 in East Lothian and Midlothian can access our range of services. Our staff work hard to make sure our waiting times are not too long.

Accessible: Mental health services should be physically and economically accessible to all young people, and must not discriminate against young people. By actively involving young people and their families, MYPAS can identify and address barriers to accessibility, ensuring that the services are physically and economically accessible.

Acceptable: Mental health services must respect young people’s rights and meet the needs of individual young people. MYPAS’s focus on involving young people and their families in service design reflects a commitment to providing services that are acceptable and respectful of individual needs and preferences.

Quality: Mental health services should treat young people as individuals and provide the support and care they need to enable them to participate in society. Some of our services are time-limited meaning that they are delivered over 12 sessions. For young people who need more sessions, we can be flexible to ensure that young people leave our services in the best possible place.

Participative: Young people should be meaningfully and actively involved in decisions about the mental health support they receive. All young people are asked their opinions on the support they receive and have opportunities to feedback to our staff both formally and informally.

By involving young people in decisions about their mental health support and seeking their feedback on the services they receive has multiple benefits, both for the young person and for professionals. Incorporating these principles into our approach not only promotes the human rights of young people but also enhances the effectiveness and impact of our services. It creates a more person-centred, responsive, and supportive environment that can lead to improved outcomes for young people seeking health and wellbeing support.

For more information on our services, click on this link: https://www.mypas.co.uk/services/