Today (10 October) is both World Homeless Day and World Mental Health Day.
World Homeless Day draws attention to the needs of people experiencing homelessness, while World Mental Health Day is a day for mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. The two issues are deeply connected as poor mental health can be both a cause and a consequence of homelessness.
Youth homelessness is on the rise, increasing by 12% in the last year in the South East of England. At YMCA DownsLink Group, we offer so much more than simply a bed: we provide access to education, training, employment, advice on dealing with finances, budgeting, personal relationships, nutrition and cooking, community involvement and more. Our aim is to enable young people to live independently.
Last year, 1,094 young people were given a safe place to call home with us.
Today also marks World Mental Health Day. At YMCA DownsLink Group we know that mental health and homelessness are closely linked.
Out of the 1,064 young people who stayed with us last year, 625 of them had recorded mental health needs. This is figure is up nearly 20% from the previous year.
Centrepoint reports that young people that had slept rough were more likely to experience mental health issues, formal mental health diagnoses, and alcohol and drug needs than young people who had not. They reported that 68.4% of those with experience of rough sleeping had mental health issues, compared to 51% of young people who had not slept rough.
At YMCA DownsLink Group 5,000 young people were provided with counselling support last year. One of those young people was Mollie:
“The therapy I had helped to unpack and make sense of my brain. We spoke about things in a logical way rather than being a jumble of thoughts, as it had previously felt like. It helped me to overcome the problems I was facing and changed the way that I think and speak to myself.” – Mollie
Read more stories from young people here.
*Data from Centrepoint data bank and NHS England, 2023.
