Turning your back on a silver gong

Members of staff at Somerset County Council had to turn their backs to the judges in order to scoop a silver gong at a regional awards competition.

Sue Crisfield, a Young Carers Project Worker, joined forces with Mark Sloman, a Mental Health Social Worker, to devise their innovative idea entitled Listen to Me – a rucksack specially designed for young people.

The project is targeted at 300 young people across Somerset who are living with or have a parent(s) with severe or enduring mental health problems. As part of the initiative, nurses at psychiatric inpatient units across Somerset are handing out rucksacks, filled with goodies, to young people visiting their parent(s).

Listen to Me became a reality after Sue and Mark worked alongside groups of affected young people, and it was their inspiration and drive to help other similar youngsters, which enabled the project to grow.

The judges on the Dorset and Somerset NHS Awards 2006 panel felt that the Listen to Me Project, which was named by young people, was so inventive that they awarded it the silver accolade. In their summing up, the judges said: “Listen to Me is a highly innovative way of giving a voice to a group of children and young people whose fears and anxieties may otherwise go unrecognised.”

Sue Crisfield, Somerset County Council’s Young Carers Project Worker, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have picked up this award, and demonstrates how successful it has been so far. As well as the rucksacks containing goodies, they also have lots of age appropriate advice about what it means to have a parent with a mental health problem, some of it developed by the children themselves. We have raised funds from statutory organisations and local charities and will be able to provide enough bags for 300 children who will be visiting psychiatric inpatient units in Somerset .”

Cllr Pauline Clarke, Somerset County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Strategic Children’s Services, said: “Somerset County Council has supported the Listen to Me project since Sue and Mark came up with the idea, and I’d like to pass on my congratulations on their well-deserved silver award. They decided to push ahead with the project because of their commitment to improving the lives of children affected by living with a parent or parents who have a severe mental health problem. Somerset County Council shares that same commitment and is doing all it can to support children and adults who are affected by mental health problems.”

The Listen to Me project was made possible through the Somerset Partnership which saw Somerset County Council working with the NHS.

The Dorset and Somerset NHS Awards are an annual prize-giving event, which aims to celebrate innovation and improvement being implemented by teams and individual members of NHS staff in the two counties; and to share their successes.

Young Carers Workers

Somerset Local Safegaurding Children Board