The
Centre for Children and Youth (CCY), University College Northampton,
recently completed a research project on ‘young people’s
health in Northamptonshire’. The project was commissioned
by the Northamptonshire Health Scrutiny Partnership Committee.
The research was undertaken in collaboration with the School of
Health, also at University College Northampton.
The
project was designed to explore the health issues and service
needs of young people (aged 12-25) in Northamptonshire. Young
people have rarely been consulted with regard to their health
issues: this research began to address this omission at a County
level, whilst also providing information of relevance to those
outside Northamptonshire. Importantly, therefore, young people
themselves were heavily involved with the research, rendering
the investigation as inclusive as possible.
The
project had three aims:
•
to identify young people’s own health issues, and the issues
that affect them;
• to consider and collate young people’s experiences
and opinions of health service provision in Northamptonshire;
• to represent young people’s requirements for future
service provision in Northamptonshire.
In
order to address the above aims, the research team employed a
multi-method research programme. The research methodology was
designed to capture the diversity of young people’s views,
and to compare this with the issues that health professionals
suggested were pertinent to young people’s health.
•
Extant background and statistical information relating to the
health of young people in the East Midlands and Northamptonshire
was compiled.
•
A detailed questionnaire survey was completed by 1,046 young people
in Years 8-13, in ten secondary schools across Northamptonshire.
•
Eight focus groups were held with young people who attended specialist
groups, including: drugs awareness groups; Connexions; a young
Mums group; a gay, lesbian and bisexual group
•
Three focus groups with ‘hard-to-reach’ groups of
young people were carried out by trained peer-researchers recruited
by Northamptonshire Millennium Volunteers. These groups captured
the views of young people who would normally be excluded from
research projects for economic, social or cultural reasons.
•
Twelve interviews and two focus groups involving key health professionals
were carried out, in order to provide comparative data.
The
research methodology was both in-depth and extensive. Therefore,
the results of the project were of wide relevance to the County
as a whole, and indicative of the complex, personal ways in which
young people thought about their health issues.
Significantly,
young people expressed (and displayed a keen awareness of) an
enormous variety of issues that they considered to be important
to their health. They discussed health as a complex, multi-faceted
notion, often identifying linkages between different health problems.
Moreover, young people and professionals argued that seemingly
‘non-health-related factors’ – such as pervasive
cultures and lifestyles within our society – are crucial
components in the experience of ‘healthiness’.
Overall,
the report demonstrated that young people’s health matters
are not dominated by a single issue. Therefore, policy-making,
and further research, must address this theme by adopting a multi-disciplinary,
multi-agency approach. It also highlighted that young people must
be consulted on this and similar issues as a matter of routine,
in a non-tokenistic, non-judgemental manner.
For
more information on the research project, and a copy of the report
summary (electronic version only), please contact the project
manager, Dr. Peter Kraftl:
E-Mail:
peter.kraftl@northampton.ac.uk
Telephone:
01604 892989
Fax:
01604 791114
Address:
Centre for Children and Youth,
University College Northampton,
Park Campus,
Northampton,
NN2 7AL
