Agency- in- practice: Young people peer-led evaluation

Introduction

Agency is the capacity of an individual to act independently and make their own choices. The Agency project explored how young people feel helped or harmed by mental healthcare interactions. To do this the project team collaborated with young people, their families, clinicians and academics across philosophy, ethics, psychology and neuroscience to investigate agency, identity and justice in youth mental health.  This collaborative team analysed verbal and non-verbal communication in mental healthcare encounters involving young people to examine how young people’s sense of agency is encouraged or hindered in these encounters.  Agency-in-Practice is a follow up study which will develop a new methodology for involving young people as co-analysts of mental health encounters.



Method

A young people peer research evaluation explored what worked well in the first Agency project interviewing eight stakeholders (young people, academics, clinicians). There were three young people peer researchers working in the study who led the work from design, through to data collection, analysis and write up. The qualitative materials, including the information sheets, consent form and interview guide developed by the young people’s peer research team in partnership wit the young people’s advisory group.



Framework analysis was used to explore in interview data. Key stages the young people peer researchers took to do this were: data familiarisation, framework identification, indexing, charting and summarising and Mapping plus interpretation.



Results and discussion

We will share the key themes, including key roles that facilitated youth involvement in the Agency project, what went well for each stakeholder (young people, academic team members) and areas that were identified for improvement. We will reflect on how to encourage best practice youth involvement more generally in mental health services research and the benefits for individuals involved including skill-building and direct advocacy supporting local service improvements.