Lives in Care: Stories of Resilience
Mindhouse Productions, the makers of the award-winning radio series and podcast Grounded With Louis Theroux, is teaming up with BBC Radio 4 and our Tony Simpson to explore life in the British care system.
mental health
Our response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care
“I thank Josh and his team for the opportunity to engage. I sincerely hope that the Government will respond boldly and implement the recommendations and action plan in this report. By doing so it will help reduce suffering and improve the life chances of the most vulnerable children and families.” Jordan Morgan, Trustee of Drive …
Our response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Read More »
How Being Mentored Helped to Reduce Loneliness During Covid
For this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week the topic is loneliness. With 1 in 5 of us feeling lonely at work and with the pressures of Covid-19 restricting social connection, read how one of our care-experienced young people benefited from having mentor through that time.
Dealing with Loss due to Knife Crime
Maya joins us as a guest writer as she bravely shares her experience with knife crime. Knife crime is something that many care-experienced young people have come across and Maya expresses how she dealt with the impact it had on her life.
Sensitive reading ahead.
A History of Criminalisation
For Care Experienced History Month 2022 we are sharing the history of our Policy Forum’s campaign on reducing criminalisation of care-experienced young people.
With care-experienced young people being criminalised 15 times more than their peers it’s easy to see why this is such an important issue to take on.
Work place discrimination highest in London
For International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2022, we want to share our own Anti-Racism principles here at Drive Forward.
These principles apply towards staff and care-experienced young people alike. Care-experienced young people have enough to deal with without adding racism to the list.
Read on to find out what our care-experienced young people want employers to know about racial discrimination in the work place.
Drive Forward calls for urgent government action on mental health
Drive Forward is calling on the Government to take urgent action to tackle the unacceptably high levels of mental health disorders among young people leaving the care system.
In a submission to the Government’s Independent Review into Children’s Social Care, we are calling for there to be at least one NHS-funded mental health practitioner in every local authority in England to provide bespoke support to care leavers.
Mental Health – Time for Action
We believe all care leavers should receive bespoke, easy-to-access mental health support. That’s why we’re bringing together some of the key people who have the power to make a difference at a special event, focusing on care experienced young people and mental health.
We all have a right to good mental health
You undergo many changes when transitioning from foster child to care leaver when you turn 18. Social workers turn into PAs (Personal Advisors). You are expected to rely on the welfare state if not in employment or student loans and grants if you are at university. You also grow up extremely quickly. By the age of 19, I had my own flat and was living alone.
It was shortly after moving in that I had my first mental health breakdown. Due to moving ‘out of borough’, the therapies that I had waited a year to access were stopped at my most vulnerable point. Since I was a new patient in that area, it meant that I had to join the back of the queue for help all over again
Children’s mental health problems don’t disappear at 18, and nor should support.
Last week, organisations across the UK took part in Children’s Mental Health Week: an initiative that has been running since 2015. Sadly, we know that children in care are particularly at risk of poor mental health. Almost half of children in care have a diagnosable mental health disorder (compared to 10% of the general child population) and two-thirds have …
Children’s mental health problems don’t disappear at 18, and nor should support. Read More »
