SHOUT young people's involvement group

If you join SHOUT you will have lots of opportunities to get involved, including:

• Training: You'll be able to support the design and delivery of staff training. You'll also be able to complete courses yourself, such as interview and presentation skills

• Local fixes: You can get involved with local charities and organisations, such as helping to plan events in your local area

• Service developments: You can get involved with service developments, such as helping to design and improve how services are delivered

• Raising awareness and breaking down stigma: You'll play a key role in raising awareness and breaking down stigma around mental health within your local community, and in promoting wellness and recovery within children and young people's mental health services.

• Make new friends and build your confidence

• Get involved with planning events

• Access free training, including first aid and interview training 

• All travel expenses for attending events and meetings paid back to you

• Build your portfolio - volunteering will help you stand out on job, college and university applications

• Play a key role in helping us improve our services for young people, now and in the future.

If you'd like to get involved with one of our SHOUT groups, contact our Involvement Scheme team on 01925 664 057 or you can fill in this short form. Someone from the team will be able to put you in touch with your local SHOUT group lead and give you more information about joining.

All SHOUT members will be asked to get their parents or carers to sign a consent form when they join. This is just so we know they are aware of what you've signed up to and are happy for you get involved with the group. 

What to expect

Young people asked if they could have some information about what to expect when referred into services, as this can cause anxiety for some. We reviewed our leaflets to include pictures of staff and what the waiting room looks like. We have also and added a 'what to expect' video from each local team on their service pages - you can view them here.

• Halton
• Knowsley
• St Helens
• Warrington

Animal Therapy

Young people gave positive feedback on our Animal Therapy Groups following our pilot in 2023. We continue to develop the groups and advertise with leaflets and posters and featured in our Summer MC Magazine. Animal Therapy this is now available monthly in all Children and Young People's Mental Health services .

The sessions are for children and young people who use mental health services at Mersey Care.

Monthly sessions are part of care and treatment and completely free.

We use animal sessions to help young people relax, socialise, communicate, and learn social skills that can help you recover or help you to cope with ongoing mental health symptoms. It’s a very relaxing and enjoyable session which can have a positive effect on your wellbeing and resilience.

The sessions are put together by the Home Safari Animal Assisted Therapy Service in partnership with Mersey Care and have already had a significant impact on the patients, including:

• One young person struggling with social anxiety has started to engage well after attending only three of the animal therapy sessions
• Another also benefitted from the sessions with their parent saying: “My child’s tics reduced, almost stopped during the session"
• A third child with multiple complex needs is now able to tolerate being around a large group of people, including other children, which is something they have never been able to do previously after just a few sessions with the animals.

One parent told us this is the happiest day of their week.

You can drop in, there is no need to book, and each group has around 12 to 15 people. You will be able to interact with animals, which may involve holding, petting and grooming. There is a wide range of animals from rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas and other critters, there is an animal for everyone, and you’re under no pressure to take part.

At the sessions we might also ask you some questions about how we can improve our services. The group has a theme each month that we talk about. Contact your team for details.