Recognising and responding to the link between mental health and sexual health 

Dougie Boyd, Brook’s Director of Education and Wellbeing, talks about the increased demand for young people’s mental health and wellbeing support and the role Brook plays in filling the gap in provision.

We have always been aware of the interplay between sexual health and mental health since Brook began delivering services in the 1960s.  

Sexual health has never existed in a vacuum- so we’ve never treated it as such.  

For the past seven decades we’ve created ‘Brook spaces’ in all our interactions with young people- confidential, safe spaces in which young people can talk about what matters to them.  

With this model that’s user-led, we’re able to identify issues that go beyond someone’s sexual health but is intricately related to it. For example, how a young person’s mental health is affected by unplanned pregnancy, STIs, unhealthy relationships or being pressured into sex. And in the same way, how poor mental health can lead to more sexual health issues- for example using sex as a coping mechanism or underestimating their self-worth. For this reason, we’ve also always delivered counselling services for any young person that needs more in-depth support.  

This approach has meant that young people continue to voluntarily come to Brook for non-judgemental support with life’s challenges

We consider our relationship with young people to be one of our biggest strengths; It means we’re able to offer support in areas that aren’t directly linked to sexual health and signpost to other organisations that will be able to provide this support if we are unable to. That’s why our partnerships with other local organisations have always been an invaluable part of our work.  

In 2015, we expanded our wellbeing services after anecdotally recognising the rise in mental health issues among the young people we supported. We launched our MyLife (early intervention) programme which is a one-to-one programme aiming to support young people to strengthen their motivation, knowledge, skill and confidence to improve their own health and wellbeing.  

Alongside this investment of funds and resources, we also reviewed our clinical counselling assessment processes. The outcome was the introduction of the Client Core Record (CCR) assessment across all of Brook’s services. At each interaction we have with a young person, we ask them five key lifestyle questions that are evidenced as being critical markers for future health and wellbeing. This has allowed us to record and support young people that are may be at risk.  

The CCR reported back some worrying statistics that poor mental health was more prevalent than we originally thought. With this evidence to back up our investments into mental health, we expanded MyLife into a national programme and grew our counselling services.  

Alongside improving current service provision, we also developed a new trauma informed RSHE curriculum. We have supported schools to implement this curriculum for key stages 1-5 which includes discrete mental health education.  

Despite these developments, we knew there was still more we could do to support young people.  

With referrals for MyLife far outstripping our provision, it became clear that whilst young people value our existing one-to-one offer, they wanted and needed more than the programme could provide. 

To understand more, in February and March 2021 Brook’s Participation team engaged with young people across the country to hear their thoughts on health and wellbeing: 

45% of participants cited mental health as the top priority 

This was followed by self-esteem (20% of total participants) and stress (17% of total participants).  

This high concern with mental health among young people is backed up our data which shows Brook service users are presenting with a greater level of safeguarding need and the percentage of those presenting with a mental/emotional health need is increasing. This increase is particularly stark among neurodivergent young people and those living in deprived areas.  

With all this in mind, as an organisation we have committed to prioritise mental health and neurodivergence support. Through investing energy, money and creativity into developing new mental health provisions, we aspire to make an effective impact on the young people we support.   

Read more about Brook’s plans for the year 2023