A guide to health & well-being for young people

Welcome

Healthwatch Essex has spent the last few years actively engaging with young people. We asked you to share your experiences of health and care services in Essex, and in particular asked about your knowledge of available services for mental health, sexual health, drugs and alcohol, smoking, learning disabilities and young carers.

The findings of this study were published in our YEAH! report (Young Essex attitudes on health and social care) and are very mixed.  Many of you reported positive experiences of kind frontline staff such as A&E nurses and paramedics. However, we also discovered that 7 in 10 of you had not heard of the 111 service and many of you had gone to A&E due to difficulties in accessing GPs or finding alternative appropriate services. Almost all of you had received information about the topics surveyed, yet few of you knew where to go for information and support.

As a direct response to the YEAH! report, we have produced this Essex-wide ‘guide to health and well-being for young people’.

This guide will help to point you in the right direction towards a healthier, less stressful and more rewarding lifestyle. It tells you where you can get help and information and gives you clear and sensible ideas on what to do if you feel you need that extra bit of help.

As a young person it is important to start following a healthy lifestyle now in order to avoid any problems when you are older. Healthy habits are easier to get used to as a young person, and they can improve the rest of your life. You will also look and feel better, right now!

This guide also contains useful websites, agency advice and information about various key issues. So take a browse and read the sections which are of interest to you.

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