The overall aim of the Voice Collective project is to improve the prospect of recovery and capacity to cope of children and young people (CYP) who are experiencing distress through hearing voices and other unusual perceptual and cognitive experiences (e.g. unusual beliefs, self-harm, dissociation and multiplicity) by:
• Enabling CYP to make sense of their experiences in a way they feel is helpful to them, without imposing labels or diagnoses, supporting them to cope with their experiences in their own frame of reference
• Promoting peer, family and community support, self-help and guided self-help, inspiring and embedding these approaches in other services by providing exemplars, materials and training for staff in CYP services
In this 3 year phase of the project over 500 children and young people up to the age of 26 will benefit from peer support groups or individual sessions and we will train up to 600 staff from other organisations working with young voice hearers, a further 80,000 people will access our online information, up to 9,000 will download information and self-help guides, and around 300 will use our online forum.
Our desired outcomes are that 80-90% of young people worked with will report reduced isolation/stigma, increased coping skills, self-agency, self-esteem and/or an increased capacity to live an ordinary life.
Outcomes for staff trained are that 70-90% of training attendees will report an increased ability to relate to young voice hearers on their own terms, an increased ability to successfully convey coping strategies and/or increased confidence in helping this group.
This is one of several Hearing Voices projects at Mind in Camden that specialise in supporting people with voice hearing type experiences (often labelled as psychotic, schizophrenic, bi polar or personality disordered), aiming to reach voice hearers of all ages in multiple settings, including in the community, acute wards, prisons, forensic secure units and immigration removal centres.