News

A team from our Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) division attended the seventh International Association for Youth Mental Health (IAYMH) conference in Vancouver between 18 and 21 March. They presented their work on 'improving equitable access to mental health services for children and young people in North London'.

Their project
The team's initiative focused on addressing disparities in mental health care for ethnic minority communities who have historically been underserved. They engaged with children, adolescents, and their families in these communities, recognising barriers such as stigma, lack of trust in services, and the underutilisation of mental health support.

To address the barriers and the resultant disparities, their multidisciplinary team—including healthcare professionals, community engagement specialists, and local community leaders—worked directly with communities to improve awareness of mental health care and accessibility to it. The team has been engaging with multifaith groups and has set up community wellbeing hubs.



Sharing North London’s approach to co-production
Alongside giving a presentation on the project, the team contributed to discussions on what effective co-production looks like, sharing how they do it 'the North London way'. Talking to other attendees, the team found that co-production remains a significant challenge for many organisations.

The team from NLFT explained how 'the North London way' means placing lived experience, peer support, and co-production at the core of our mental health services. They spoke about their framework for embedding co-production into decision-making processes and service design. Other attendees were able to gather inspiration on how to achieve meaningful co-production in their organisations, noting that passion for co-production among leadership is key to success here.

Our team's takeaways
The conference gave our Trust's representatives a valuable opportunity for learning, sharing good practice, and collaborating with experts, policymakers, and young people from around the world. The exchange of insights that took place reinforced the importance of community-driven approaches for our team. They came away feeling that the work they - and we across NLFT - are doing to improve equitable access to mental health care is vital.

The team's participation in the conference reaffirms our commitment to innovation, inclusion, and co-production in youth mental health services at NLFT. Those who attended from our Trust look forward to applying what they learned at the conference to further improve our work in North London and beyond.