For the past few years, we have been working with our friends across the sector on the Fund the Hubs campaign. Along with Centre for Mental Health, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, Mind, Youth Access, The Children’s Society, Young Minds and Black Thrive, we have been calling for a network of early support hubs across the country which would provide young people somewhere to go when they first start to struggle with their mental health.
In this blog, we share more about the early support hub model and reflect on our campaign successes.
An early support hub is a mental health and wellbeing hub that provide open access, flexible, early support for young people under 25 in their communities on a drop-in basis. Services of this kind provide a holistic offer of advice and support for mental health and wellbeing, and related issues including but not limited to sexual health, education, housing, and employment. Early support hubs can reduce pressures on the NHS and improve young people’s life chances by providing a community space to access flexible and holistic support for emotional wellbeing.
A few weeks ago, we visited The Hive, a mental health support hub in Camden. The hub provides various avenues of support to children aged 16-24 living in or with any connection to Camden. The support offered includes help and advice on mental health, health and wellbeing, sexual health, personal development, and career support, as well as a drop in social hub. The social hub offers free activities and workshops including but not limited to drama, running and yoga as well as a daily food bank, spaces to study and just chat.
