An Invitation to Think: A Complicated System
Pip Gardner’s recent workshop at Fullscope’s event led them to consider whether LGBTQ+ youth have complex needs or are faced with a complicated system to navigate.
I recently led a workshop as part of Fullscope’s ‘An Invitation To Think’ event. Reflecting on the involvement of The Kite Trust with the collaborative over the last five years led me to consider the question of complex needs or a complex system.
In 2020, Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination gave young artists from our youth groups the opportunity to develop Creative Care packages for their peers. In the following years we worked with a system-wide steering group for an action research project to explore the barriers to LGBTQ+ youth getting the mental health support they deserve. You can read The Kite Trust’s full report for more details: LGBTQ+ Youth and Mental Health Report. And we’re currently working with CPSL Mind on a suicide prevention project to understand how we achieve better outcomes in this area for LGBTQ+, disabled, neurodiverse and migrant communities.
These projects wouldn’t have been half as impactful had they been undertaken on our own, as we’ve been able to learn from experts in creative approaches, clinical settings, training and campaigning, whilst drawing upon the wealth of lived experience brought by everyone at The Kite Trust. Working together built understanding of one another.
Why does this matter?
What our action research project showed is that LGBTQ+ young people don’t always feel understood by those who provide mental health support. They often feel ‘othered’ by service providers and struggle to find a sense of belonging – creating barriers to being able to ask for help when needed. So improving understanding of LGBTQ+ identities and experiences across our mental health system will have a direct benefit for young people.
We’re all more than one thing
Pip Gardner, CEO of The Kite Trust, at the Fullscope event, An Invitation to Think.
All of us have more than one aspect to us that shapes our experiences and opportunities, but we don’t see all those facets when they are the ones we are expecting to see. Society as a whole expects people to have certain characteristics – including being cisgender and heterosexual – but that doesn’t mean those individuals are any simpler or less complex as human beings. It just means overwhelmingly our services are set up in ways which might work reasonably for them, and the system then looks more complicated if that’s not the case.
We shift this onto the individual and call some people complex rather than seeing them as in need of support to navigate a system that hasn’t been organised around their needs. Being labelled as ‘complex’ can feel like support services are actively telling you they’re not equipped to provide you with support and so some young people won’t even try.
What can we do?
Involving people with diverse experiences, identities and backgrounds in the design of any service is key to making sure that it’s equally accessible to a wider range of potential service users. Who is round your table for that process? Who is missing? Who can you collaborate with to make things a little less complicated to navigate?
If you would like to join the next event, An Invitation to Think: Act 1, email info@fullscopecollaboration.org.uk
Written in conjunction with our guest, Pip Gardner, CEO of The Kite Trust