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Improving the surgery waiting room for young people
The people we talked to felt that GP surgery waiting rooms could be improved in several ways to make them more appealing and welcoming to...
People gave us their ideas on what could help improve healthcare for young people, including:
clinics for young people
mental health clinics for young people
clinics for all age groups
telephone helplines
online health services and live chat
support from other young people
Clinics for young people
Simon felt that specific clinic times for young people would be helpful. They would also give them the opportunity to meet other people dealing with similar issues and ‘share how they do things differently’. He felt that young people in a GP surgery for all age groups rarely talk to one another but in a clinic for young people ‘they’re more inclined to talk’.
Hannah and Winston felt that a young people’s clinic would be helpful for teenagers who are concerned about sexual health and contraception.
Mental health clinics for young people
Nikki felt that mental health clinics specifically for young people would be ‘a really good idea’ as she believed that there needs to be a much greater focus on mental health. In a clinic focussing only on mental health problems and concerns, people ‘won’t be compared to those with physical health problems’.
Lucy liked the idea of walk-in centres for mental health, maybe with counsellors available, as long as there wasn’t a three or four hour wait to see someone. She also felt that it would be good to have a young people’s support group for mental health at the GP surgery, one for people under 18 and another for young people over 18.
Not everyone liked the idea of clinics specifically for young people, especially if they rarely went to the doctors’. Louis was unsure whether he’d like a young people’s clinic in GP surgeries because he ‘might see other people I knew there which, you know, makes me feel a bit awkward if I saw them’. But he felt that they could be useful if the clinics were run at school so that no one would have to miss lessons because of a doctor’s appointment. Peter felt that clinics just for young people were unnecessary because ‘you can feel that you’re being singled out….and it just alienates you from others’.
Paula thought it would be helpful to have a telephone service specifically for young people where they could phone in with their queries and concerns. Auberon would also have liked a telephone helpline for young people, as long as they could get through direct to a GP and not to an automated service giving information, while Lucy felt that an NHS non-emergency number specifically for mental health would be useful for people of all age groups. Nikki thought a young people’s helpline would be helpful if it was promoted enough and people knew it was available. She’d sometimes used the Samaritans helpline and thought it was important for young people to know what support was available. She felt that a helpline run by and for young people ‘would be a really good idea’ or a texting service where young people could ‘interact and support each other’.
Online health services and live chat
Tagbo liked the idea of a helpline for young people, and felt that such a service online might be used more often by teenagers, especially if they could ask health questions anonymously. He felt that young people might ask about sex, drugs, and relationships, and other topics that were hard to talk to parents about. Rowan and Emma felt that a live chat helpline would be good:
Some people, like Rowan, preferred not to see others of their own age at the doctor’s surgery, but thought that talking to other young people could be a good idea instead of going to the GP surgery with minor worries. But Hazzan felt that, ‘If people are talking amongst themselves, then I don’t think they’d get anywhere.I think they’d need a GP to step in at certain points to answer questions that young people may have.'
The people we talked to felt that GP surgery waiting rooms could be improved in several ways to make them more appealing and welcoming to...
Some people had experience of a telephone consultation (a GP appointment over the phone), which could be a quicker and easier alternative to a face...