“So What Next?” Youngsters at York-based NHS unit pen poem for children’s mental health week 2022

Young people at a York-based mental health unit have created a poem about how it feels to be admitted as an inpatient during the pandemic for Children’s Mental Health Week 2022.

The poem, entitled “So What Next?”, bravely describes the first-hand emotions and feelings of being a young inpatient at the Mill Lodge mental health unit.

Listen to the four young people who wrote it read their work:

 

Read it in full below:

 

So What Next?

A poem by the young people of Mill Lodge, York (2 February 2022).

I’m going to hospital

I’m worried and scared

People say it will help

But I don’t feel prepared

 

Because of Covid

I go to the isolation room

It’s gloomy and lonely

I hope I’m out soon

 

I have my negative

So lots of new places

It feels overwhelming

So many new faces

 

So a new routine

To structure my day

Up really early

With lots of games to play

 

So what next?

What will the plan be?

It feels really uncertain

It’s so hard to see

 

As time passes

I hope and pray

That with kindness and support

I can make my own way

---

 

Children’s Mental Health Week takes place from 7 to 13 February 2022. It is run by children’s mental health charity Place2Be and this year’s theme is ‘growing together’.

 

Mill Lodge is home to eight young people aged between 13 and 18 years old who have significant emotional and behavioural difficulties. The unit is based in Huntington near York and is staffed by a range of health professionals including nurses, psychiatrists, teachers, psychologists and other therapists. It is similar to a hospital ward only it’s a separate building in the community and staff do not normally wear uniforms.

 

Amy Burn, an Occupational Therapist at Mill Lodge, helped the young inpatients with the poem. She said: “Art and creativity are fantastic ways of encouraging young people to express their feelings and connect emotionally with the difficulties they are going through.

“We were thrilled at how our youngster embraced the challenge of creating a poem about their experiences – which have been particularly hard due to all the pandemic-related restrictions we’ve had in place over the last two years.

 

“We’ve also made a sign (pictured below) with some inspirational and positive messages for a local community garden that the young people use – which fits nicely with this year’s theme of growing together.”

 

Mill Lodge is part of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Find out more about it and see a virtual tour created by our young inpatients on our website.

 

The Trust is also committed to developing child-friendly mental health clinical practice through its Child Oriented Mental Health Intervention Centre (COMIC) research group. The Group seeks to improve the health and lives of hearing and deaf children and young people by developing mental health interventions which are accessible, child friendly and child centred.  Read more about COMIC on their website.