Annual Report & Statement of Accounts 2012

Somewhere Someone Dedicated to to turn to to talk to bringing youth “ Jigsaw has got mental health me and my services to son through the young people darkest time in communities of our lives.” Parent of a Young Person around Ireland who used Jigsaw

Headstrong The National Centre for Youth Mental Health 16 Westland Square, Pearse Street, Dublin 2, Ireland T +353 (0) 1 472 7010 www.headstrong.ie

Registered Charity CHY 17439 1 Message from the Chair 2 Message from a YAP Member 3 Message from the Founding Director 4 What We Do 7 Jigsaw - Young People’s Health In Mind 16 Evaluation 19 Education & Training 20 Advocacy 32 Research 36 Fundraising - Partnerships of Support 42 Financial Report 44 Our Partners 45 Who We Are

Vision

An Ireland where young people are connected to their community and have the resilience to face challenges to their mental health.

Mission

Changing how Ireland thinks about young people’s mental health through the Jigsaw programme of service development, research and advocacy.

Values

We respect the voices of young people and believe that all young people should be given the supports to develop good mental health.

We recognise that young people, communities and Government all have a role in and responsibility to develop a supportive environment to foster mental health in young people.

We seek to innovate, challenge and apply best- practice in youth mental health in an Irish context.

We are an evidence-led organisation, continually researching, evaluating and improving our work. Message from the Chair

During 2012 the growing need for resources thanks for his hard work and dedication to for young people and the awareness of promoting youth mental health during this youth mental health has become apparent time. He has been inspirational to all of us in communities around Ireland. I have been and has shaped our thinking on youth mental touched, time and again, by the dedication health in Ireland. Thankfully, Pat’s stepping of the staff of Headstrong and Jigsaw in down from the month to month board their work in bringing these services out meetings does not mean losing the gift of his into communities. particular insight and learning because he will continue as an advisor to Headstrong. I am pleased and proud to focus on some important highlights of Headstrong during Ian Simington also brought a very particular 2012 such as the launch of the My World depth and intelligence, which guided all of us Survey in May. The survey is Ireland’s first on the board as vice chair. Ian stepped down comprehensive national study of youth mental as vice chair in November 2012 and remains a health, collating the views of 14,306 young vital and perceptive board member. people aged 12-25. This survey is the first, most in-depth and insightful barometer we As we say adieu to one colleague on the have of the mental health and well-being of Headstrong board, we welcome another: Irish Ireland’s adolescents and young adults. It is Rugby Union International player Johnny Sexton, widely quoted and referenced as an essential who joined our board in November 2012. touchstone on youth mental health. The growing family of Jigsaw extended further In June Headstrong hosted an inspiring in 2012, with the opening of Jigsaw Offaly, workshop by Annie Rogers, Professor of Jigsaw Donegal and the new Hub at Jigsaw Psychoanalysis and Clinical Psychology at Roscommon. I am looking forward to visiting Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Professor these sites soon with my fellow board members. Rogers spoke about the challenges facing The Headstrong Learning Network was also young people in their journey to adulthood. extended to eight new communities. It aims She drew on her deep experience of working to increase on-the-ground capacity to support with young people who struggle with youth mental health. These are communities traumatic experiences. The open forum at The who really want Jigsaw, and the network brings Exchange in Dublin was attended by more than together key leaders who are working towards 400 guests from all disciplines and from every mobilising everyone in their area or county to corner of Ireland. The evening was a valuable better support mental health and wellbeing. step forward in Headstrong’s ongoing mission to change how we all think - and talk - about Finally, I would like to extend a special thank youth mental health. you to the team at Jigsaw Meath for their welcome on our board away-day in September. I want to express my thanks to our board Our visit was an inspiring one, with an for their valuable contributions during 2012. opportunity to meet and listen to the staff and In particular, I wish to thank one special young people first-hand and feel the pulse of board member. Professor Patrick McGorry, Jigsaw’s work in a county. I look forward to psychiatrist and former Australian Person of visiting our new sites in 2013. the Year, gave our organisation five invaluable years of service. All of us want to pay tribute Dr Sheelah Ryan to Pat and express sincere appreciation and Chair

www.headstrong.ie 1 Message from a Youth Advisory Panel Member

For me, 2012 will be the year I witnessed Jisgaw has made fantastic progress around the Headstrong grow into its adolescence, country. With ten sites now established, more and what a growth spurt it has been. great services and innovations are being created for the young people of Ireland. The growing For one thing, Headstrong and the UCD School demand from communities to have Jigsaw in of Psychology published the My World Survey, their area is a testament to the ground breaking a national study of youth mental health. This work that the Jigsaw staff and YAPs are doing groundbreaking study confirms the importance on a day to day basis. I cannot wait to see of Headstrong’s efforts to bring the issues Jigsaw develop further in the next year. of youth mental health into the daylight. My World Survey found that ‘One Good Adult’ is While Headstrong is growing and achieving important for the mental health of a young remarkable things, we are aware of the person. While I sat with the Headstrong Board economic difficulties we face as a society as a Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) representative and as an organisation. I would like to thank this year, I realised that we have 11 caring all those who have made our work possible and talented people providing their services through donations and fundraising. We, like as One Good Adults to Headstrong. I have every other charitable organisation, face an been privileged to watch this group of smart, unsure future, but we hope that your support committed and passionate adults strive to will help ensure we continue to guide young provide every support and guidance that people on their path towards adulthood and Headstrong could ask for in this time of that Ireland’s young people will always have change and growth. somewhere to turn to and someone to talk to.

While the YAP continues to enjoy providing Ruth Baker our input to board proceedings, we say a fond Youth Advisory Panel Member farewell to fellow YAP representative Tim Smyth. Tim has been supporting Headstrong since the very beginning, and his insights and contributions will be sadly missed. We would like to thank Tim for the dedication he has shown to Headstrong in the past, and we know he won’t be a stranger to the organisation.

We have also welcomed new people into the Headstrong family. Our YAP has recently recruited a number of new members, allowing a fresh wave of energy and ideas to spread. The YAP has been involved in more areas of the organisation than ever before in 2012.

Headstrong Annual Report & Statement of Accounts 2012 2 Message from the Founding Director

2012 was a good year for Headstrong, and They believe that young people at the edge I want to thank so many people for making often feel "overwhelming and uncontrollable it so. We’ve had tremendous support from feelings of hopelessness, being trapped and young people on our advisory boards, the unable to see any way out.” They don’t yet many fantastic teams throughout our Jigsaw have enough life experience to see that this, sites, and leaders within our health system too, will pass. and the government. When asked what helped young people come We are now in a position to open new Jigsaw back from the edge, there was a resounding services in Donegal, Offaly, and early in 2013 consensus that the presence of someone who in Dublin 15, Tallaght, Clondalkin and North cared made all the difference. This is what Fingal. We continue to work with our existing Jigsaw does; it brings together people who are Jigsaw services in Galway, Kerry and Meath willing to listen to young people, take them to support their engagement with young seriously, and instil in them the feeling that people and secure sustainable funds to keep they belong, that their life matters and that their doors open. We have also been working they can make it work. in several additional communities to build their readiness for Jigsaw and evolve an Please join us in starting kitchen conversations action plan that will move them towards the about mental health. Help us to keep the implementation phase. flame of hope and action alive in communities across the country so that we can reach over Like every other charity in the country, our and under the boundaries and be there for future is uncertain. But we have widespread any young person who needs someone to support for Jigsaw in local communities, listen. Our deepest wish is that young people statutory services, schools, young people in Ireland would have somewhere to turn to and and their families, and we are committed to someone to talk to. It’s not a big ask. bringing your concerns to the government and HSE because Jigsaw makes sense to Dr Tony Bates you as a multi-level, cross-community early Founding Director intervention programme.

Suicide among young people continues to shatter families and communities across this country, tragically reflecting the levels of distress among our young people.

This year, I surveyed our own youth advisors to seek their understanding of why so many teenagers are dying by suicide. They told me that what pushes a young person to the edge is not “just one event or issue, but an accumulation.”

www.headstrong.ie 3 What We Do

What is Headstrong? Headstrong is the National Centre for Youth Mental Health. A non-profit organisation, Headstrong is dedicated to encouraging and facilitating the provision of appropriate mental health support for young people, and to changing how Ireland thinks about mental health.

For far too long, we as a nation have neglected to provide adequate mental health services for young people. We haven’t dealt adequately with the distress and pain of young people facing unbearable psychological pressures at the most vulnerable time in their lives. Our statistics for substance abuse, self-harm and suicide are unacceptable, and Headstrong is fighting every day to address these issues and to get Ireland to wake up and reach out to help young people look forward to a happy, healthy and productive adulthood.

Our approach is not to reinvent the wheel, but rather to recognise and develop existing capacities within communities across Ireland. We listen - directly involving young people themselves in our decision-making and programme-development processes.

Headstrong supports youth mental health through three distinct and mutually supportive approaches: 1. Service Development (Jigsaw), 2. Advocacy, and 3. Research.

Jigsaw Jigsaw is a vibrant new vision for mental health provision for young people in this country.

A community-based solution to young people’s mental health challenges, Jigsaw embodies a plan of action and best thinking from around the world to profoundly improve youth mental health. It is the operational expression of A Vision for Change, the report of the government’s expert group on mental health policy, 2006. Headstrong’s Founding Director Dr Tony Bates was an editor of a Vision for Change.

Jigsaw is a whole new way of understanding and working with young people in the context of larger systems that impact critically on their mental health, guided and informed by young people themselves to ensure that programmes are relevant, accessible and appropriate.

Headstrong Annual Report & Statement of Accounts 2012 4 All of our work is based on sound evidence and rooted in research that deepens our understanding of the issue. It is also robustly clinically governed.

Number of people surveyed in There are currently six Jigsaw services operating in Donegal, Offaly, the My World Survey in 2011 Galway, Roscommon, Kerry and Meath. A further four Jigsaw services are finalising their plans with a view to opening in early 2013.

Our vision is to eventually have a Jigsaw Hub in every community in Ireland so that young people across the country will always have somewhere to turn to and someone to talk to.

Advocacy To influence policy and tackle stigma we support young people to advocate for themselves. Young people participate directly in developing Jigsaw and other projects, and our Youth Advisory Panel is critical to informing and advising us and ensuring that young people’s voices are central to decision-making on their behalf.

We are also guided in our work by an Adult Advisory Panel to reality-test our plans and provide invaluable listening and thought refinement.

The combination of empowered young people alongside parents, guardians and One Good Adults concerned about youth mental health makes such a difference to our work.

Research Research is imperative if we are to deepen our understanding of young people’s experiences. Our My World Survey is the first national study of youth mental health. More than 14,000 people aged 12 – 25 were surveyed, and the data captured during 2011, launched in Dublin’s City Hall in May 2012, will be widely disseminated to improve services and supports to meet the needs of young people.

When we bring Jigsaw projects into communities, we also carry out extensive Needs and Resource Analysis research within each area to facilitate the design of appropriate services.

“My World Survey found that ‘One Good Adult’ is important for the mental health of a young person.”

Ruth Baker, Headstrong Youth Advisory Panel Member

www.headstrong.ie 5 My World Survey Research Launch, 16 May 2012.

To ensure that local efforts are effective and appropriate, we conduct on-going, rigorous evaluation of Jigsaw and other projects, and we invest considerable effort in helping communities to measure and assess change.

Headstrong and the Jigsaw programme are wholly aligned to, and are the operational expressions of, Irish national policy including:

>> Children First (2011)

>> A Vision for Change (2006)

>> Reach Out National Strategy for Action on Suicide Prevention (2005)

>> The Primary Care Strategy (2003)

>> National Children’s Strategy (2000)

>> Get Connected - Developing an Adolescent Friendly Health Service (2001)

>> A Better Future Now (2005)

>> Irish College of Psychiatrists

We are also aligned to international policy, in particular, the WHO policy for an effective youth friendly mental health service.

Headstrong Annual Report & Statement of Accounts 2012 6 Jigsaw - Young People’s Health In Mind

Headstrong’s vibrant new vision for mental health provision for young people is catching on fast! In 2012 we expanded Jigsaw to six new communities, whilst continuing to consolidate our work in the initial Jigsaw sites in Galway, Roscommon, Meath and Kerry.

Jigsaw brings services and supports together to ensure that young people have somewhere to turn to and someone to talk to. Thanks to HSE innovations funds secured in 2011, six projects – Donegal, Offaly, Dublin 15, Tallaght, Clondalkin and North Fingal - completed their planning phase and submitted implementation plans for approval. Project managers were re