The OASIS group (Opening up Awareness & Support and Influencing Services) are a group of young people aged 11-25 who have come together to change and influence Mental Health services for young people in Barnsley. The OASIS group is facilitated by staff from Chilypep (Children and Young People’s Empowerment Project). Chilypep is funded by Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group to support young people’s involvement in Barnsley’s Local Area Transformation Plan under Future in Mind.
The OASIS group (Opening up Awareness & Support and Influencing Services) are a group of young people aged 11-25 who have come together to change and influence Mental Health services for young people in Barnsley. The OASIS group is facilitated by staff from Chilypep (Children and Young People’s Empowerment Project). Chilypep is funded by Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group to support young people’s involvement in Barnsley’s Local Area Transformation Plan under Future in Mind.
The group members have been trained as ‘Young Commissioners’ and are working with service providers to make positive change to services in the area. Many of the young people have their own lived experience of metal health conditions and services, which they bring to the group. The Young People are passionate about reducing Stigma around Mental Health and promoting access to early intervention and self-care strategies.
The group have designed and created their own innovative product- The Youth Mental Health First Aid Kit and online social media campaign #NotJustMe to raise the voice and awareness of youth mental health.
The Mental Health First Aid Kit contains Glitter Jars, Lavender dough, Fidget Cubes, Relaxation Techniques, Positive quotes, & colouring in pages. Alongside the mental health first aid kit they’ve also created guides so that young people, and those supporting them, can make their own kits and explore different activities they can do around staying emotionally well.
The group worked together to see their idea of a Youth Mental Health First Aid Kit come to life, from an idea in a group session, to trying out various techniques to include, to producing posters and online materials, and then creating the actual kits and distributing them to every school and college in Barnsley.
This year the OASIS group have created and launched a social media campaign with the #NotJustMe, they chose to do this to get Young People talking about mental health and to increase awareness of how common mental health conditions are. The online campaign under the #NotJustMe has been incredibly successful and over the course of two months leading up to World Mental Health Day 2017 they had created 57,561 unique Twitter impressions.
The Campaign supports the Manifesto and film the group have produced to highlight the 8 key recommendations for services that they collated from consultations with Young People from across the town during 2016-2017. OASIS are engaging with local CAMHS, and other Voluntary Organisations to look at how the recommendations from the Manifesto can be put into practice.
The OASIS group want to see parity of esteem in relation to mental health. That means treating mental health as equal to physical health. They believe that by increasing understanding around mental health they can reduce stigma and improve how others perceive those living with mental ill health. Their idea was to physically have a Mental Health First Aid Kit in a multitude of settings where young people are likely to go, just like you would have a first aid kit!
The Mental Health First Aid Kit has been very positively received by young people and adults alike, and received media attention from local press, to the Mayor and MP’s.
The OASIS group held an event for World Mental Health Day 2017, in partnership with another local organization Hear my Voice, at Barnsley Town Hall. The event was attended by over 200 people. They used the event to launch the Mental Health First Aid Kit. The group we active in all levels of organization for the event from creating the line up, to running workshops and consultations.
Downloadable copies of the Youth Mental Health First Aid Kit and Manifesto are available on the Chilypep Website: http://www.chilypep.org.uk/oasis.
The OASIS group has had a positive impact on the lives of the Young People in the group and to young people across Barnsley.
Quotes form OASIS members: “I found out about Oasis through my support worker at Addaction.I have taken part in youth mental health training as well as interview and campaign training. I have also been involved in designing the Youth mental health first aid kit and the campaign #NotJustMe. I have enjoyed the weekly discussions, I feel listened to and its good social interaction. I am glad to have met all the chilypep workers because they just get it. I enjoyed the activities in the youth mental health training and making friends. I have also enjoy seeing ideas grow into projects. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment to have my ideas heard and accepted by the top dogs.”
“Being involved with OASIS I have made real friends who understand how I am feeling, we share our problems and fears, in a safe environment and I now feel confident to help others ion the group. It has not always been easy, sometimes it is difficult to talk about how I am feeling, but I know the workers are there for me and I trust them to talk too. We recently made a film where I felt listened to and respected. This group has supported me through some very difficult times, even to this day.”
All primary and secondary schools in Barnsley have been given a Mental Health First Aid Kit, many students took part in workshops at the World Mental Health Day Event. Alongside the social media campaign we hope that young people across Barnsley and beyond will feel confident talking about and seeking support for their mental health.
Through the Manifesto we hope that local services will continue to take the OASIS group’s recommendations on board and we will see real changes to Mental Health Services that young people in Barnsley are accessing.
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Statement from Barnsley MP Dan Jarvis in support of OASIS work.
“Mental health affects us all. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people will suffer from poor mental health at some point in their lives. We all know someone who has struggled with their mental health. For far too long there has been a stigma attached to mental health. Too many people feel worried about coming forward and talking about it. But whilst we still have a long way to go to achieve parity of esteem between physical and mental health, I am heartened by the progress we have made. Mental health is finally being seen as a top priority and that is because of groups like OASIS and Hear My Voice whose members have tirelessly advocated for it. I want to thank them for putting on this event today. Here in Barnsley, we have been giving mental health the priority it deserves. The Barnsley Local Area Transformation Plan, working with Chilypep, has sought the views of young people about our local mental health services and what can be done to improve them. Because of this work, a Mental Health First Aid kit will be distributed to all schools and colleges in South Yorkshire. This will make a real difference to young people struggling with mental health issues in our local area. I would urge everyone here to keep talking to people about this and to keep campaigning for better mental health services.”
