Wednesday 6 February saw the inaugural session of Ludlow Young Health, a wellbeing and mental health advice drop-in service. Nearly 50 young people and their parents or carers dropped in to the Ludlow Youth Centre in the first few hours of the service. It will now run every second Wednesday from 3.30pm to 7pm at Ludlow Youth Centre. The next drop-in will be 20 February.
Tracey Huffer, chair of the Ludlow Youth Partnership, said:
“It was amazing response for the first day of new support service. It showed the level of need for wellbeing support amongst young people in the Ludlow area. We always knew we would only be scratching the surface of the issues we want to tackle. We are thinking big for the future and we are already planning a new fundraising campaign.”
Erica Garner is a town councillor and chair of Young Shropshire Into Work, which provides a confidential 1:1 mentoring service for 16 to 25-year olds. She said:
“We have been targeting leaflets and social media at young people, parents and carers. That strategy has worked well. Now we have started, young people will hear about the scheme by word of mouth and their social media networks.”
Tim Gill is Mayor of Ludlow and is supporting Ludlow Young Health with the mayor’s charity. He said:
“This shows how much our town can achieve locally if there is a will and everyone pulls together. Everyone has worked so hard to get us this far. It is important that now we have started, we keep the momentum going.”
Ludlow Young Health is run by Ludlow Youth Partnership, with the backing of local councils and charities. The drop-in advice sessions will run twice a month over the next year. Ludlow Town Council, Ludlow Mayor’s Charity, Ludlow Rotary, Shropshire Council and Connexus (South Shropshire Housing) have all put in money to get the scheme off the ground. The drop-in service is delivered by the Children’s Society as part of its Beam initiative, using professional staff and trained local volunteers.
People interesting in volunteering should email AskBeam@childrenssociety.org.uk.
Fifty years so I was part of an inaugural youth counselling service in Reading. We had a handful of clients.
It’s probable that a healthy change in attitude towards mental health has led to this level of demand but it’s also possible that for young people today the world is a much more stressful place than it was 50 years ago. So, congratulations on the successful launch of this service; but also, be worried. Be very worried.