Voices Unlocked at Linklaters

On the 26th June, we visited the global law firm, Linklaters, to share our findings from our latest project, Voices Unlocked. 

www.linklaters.com
 
But before we tell you about that, let’s rewind a little bit…
 
Earlier this year, we were funded by Linklaters to listen to the voices of young people from diverse backgrounds, so that we can better understand their experiences in accessing mental health services. 
 
In order to do this, we set about three focus groups with ten local young ambassadors who had previously used our services. Coming from a range of diverse backgrounds, we spoke to young people who were Asian, Asian Chinese, Mixed White and Asian, Latin American, and Asian Bangladeshi. 

We wanted to get their opinions on mental health as a whole, hear of their experiences accessing services and if they faced any barriers, and also what they thought about Brandon Centre. 
 
We discovered that stigma and negative perceptions around mental health in these young people’s communities act as a major barrier to accessing mental health services. 
 
Often dismissed by their families, mental health was described as a “weakness”, something to be “ashamed” of, and not spoken about “freely” amongst communities – making it particularly difficult for these young people to seek the help that they might need. 

We’re already working on increasing the awareness and diversity in the psychological workforce to combat this, and we’re starting to see that opinions are shifting. However, we’ve recognised that there’s a need to continue this work as well as strengthen our partnerships with other organisations so that we can help as many diverse young people as we can. 

Despite this, those we spoke to said that their experience at Brandon Centre was overwhelmingly positive. They praised our flexibility and our non-judgmental, friendly staff as well as appreciating the length of therapy we provide in comparison to other services. 
 
But the most important thing to us was that these young people reported long-term, positive impacts on their mental health through accessing our services.  
 
With this knowledge, we shared our findings to Linklaters at their offices, and alongside our young ambassadors we opened up the floor to questions – helping to guide others to our services as well as answering queries from the project. While we were there, Linklaters also kindly ran a careers panel for our young ambassadors, hearing the amazing stories and voices of, Yewande Akeju, Avani Agarwal and Lizzie Harker-Noor, to understand the different inspiring careers and pathways Linklaters. 
 
It was a truly insightful experience, and we learnt and took away a lot. But if we had to pick one quote that highlights what we do best…