In Our Own Words - Youth Researchers

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In Our Own Words trains young people in social research methods to investigate other young people's experiences of mental health and wellbeing with the goal of making a difference to services in local communities.

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What is In Our Own Words?

In Our Own Words is a project for neurodivergent young people and young carers as lived experience experts. The project trains and supports young people to become researchers to understand other young people's experiences of mental health and wellbeing as well as mental health services. It's a peer-led project where young people lead their own research and decide what areas of mental health and wellbeing they want to look into.

We are working with organisations that work in mental health and research. This includes MindWorks, Surrey University, Surrey Youth Focus and Healthwatch.

Taking place from March to October 2024, Youth Researchers will be trained by professional researchers from Surrey University, learning skills in social research. Social research uses methods like questionnaires and focus groups, to understand our behaviour, attitudes, and experiences and how these may relate to the environment, society and specific events or issues.

The programme is funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research, Applied Research Collaboration and is part of a push to get more young people involved in research, especially about mental health.

Supported by professional researchers and a personal mentor, the Youth Researchers are designing their very own study on a mental health or wellbeing topic that they are passionate about.

The topics are inspired by the Youth Researchers' personal experiences of neurodivergence as they would like their research to help improve services for other neurodivergent young people in Surrey.

Topics include:

  • school-based support during diagnosis
  • support for neurodivergent young people out of education because of mental health challenges
  • teacher training on neurodivergence and understanding the mental health experiences of LGBTQ+ neurodivergent young people
  • understanding the mental health experiences of LGBTQ+ neurodivergent young people

Having now completed their projects, youth researchers are starting to share their findings and make suggestions to leaders in Surrey on what services can do to improve as well as what works well.

Just like a professional researcher, our Youth Researchers are paid hourly for their time.

Who is the project for?

Our Youth Researchers are young carers and neurodivergent young people (no diagnosis required) aged 12 to 18 (up to 25 for those with additional needs and disabilities) living, attending school or college and / or accessing services in Surrey.

The Youth Researchers were inspired to take part by their own experiences of ups and downs with their mental health journey and would like to use their findings to improve services for other neurodivergent young people in Surrey.

Here is what they say so far about being on the project:

  • "I'm enjoying doing the In Our Own Words project. Young people's mental health and neurodiversity in Surrey is an important topic that needs more attention and I'm excited to be carrying out research that will make positive changes. I'm happy that us young people have the opportunity to make our voices heard." (Ems, 15)
  • "I wanted to apply for In Our Own Words because I am passionate about mental health and neurodivergence. As someone who struggles with both, and has experienced it my whole life, I would love to provide an insight to others as to what it's like and what support would be helpful" (Youth researcher, 16)

Getting involved

Applications for our Youth Researcher roles closed in March. Although we have our group of Youth Researchers for 2024, we are still always keen to hear your thoughts, reflections and experiences. We like to have as many young people as possible participating in our programme.

If you would be interested in getting involved and/or have any questions, then do get in contact with us through our email or our socials: Instagram, Facebook and X.

If you are a professional who would like to connect with the project, then please get in touch and email user.voice@surreycc.gov.uk

What is a peer-led approach?

In Our Own Words takes a 'peer-led' approach.

Peer-led research is where people with a lived experience of the topics for example, mental health, have a key role in choosing the research and carrying out the research itself.

This is important as it gives power and voice to the community the research is about and makes sure that the findings are accurate and helpful to them. It's all about doing research with people instead of about them.

Project timeline

The project will take place from March to October 2024.

The project has ended for 2024, and youth researchers are now sharing their findings and recommendations in different places and spaces. We hope that In Our Own Words will continue for 2025. Watch this space to stay updated.

Youth Research

Our youth researchers have now been trained by professionals at Surrey University to design and lead their own social research projects. This research is to understand experiences of mental health, emotional wellbeing, and service use for neurodivergent young people. Their findings will be used to make recommendations to leaders across Surrey about how services can be positively improved for neurodivergent young people.

Being neurodivergent themselves, our youth researchers are experts by lived experience. This means that they have a personal connection to the topics they are investigating. For their chosen data collection method, they decided to create a survey to gather responses.

Youth researchers designed the surveys themselves, writing the questions for those taking part. The youth researchers then took their surveys out into the community, asking people to share their thoughts, experiences and feelings around their mental health and the support they have received. 160 responses were gathered across all surveys from young people, parents/carers, teachers and even police staff in Surrey.

Once they collected their responses, the youth researcher looked at what people had said and pulled out some key findings. They then looked at these findings and created some recommendations for decision makers that would raise awareness, offer better support and adapt services to create positive change for neurodivergent young people in Surrey.

List of topics explored by the youth researcher

Survey topics for children and young people

  1. The impact of diagnosis on support at school
  2. Wait times, neurodivergence and the LGBTQ+ community
  3. The impacts of diagnosis waiting time - students only
  4. Time off school and the impact on social relationships
  5. The impact of mental health on education and work-based avoidance
  6. Autistic girl's experiences of school in Surrey
  7. Visiting the past to change the future, neurodiversity at school
  8. What do you think about autism?

Survey topics for teachers, professionals or parents/carers

  1. The impact of mental health on education and work-based avoidance
  2. Teacher training on neurodiversity
  3. The impacts of diagnosis waiting time - teachers only
  4. What do you think about autism?
  5. Police perspectives: interactions with neurodiverse young people

Watch In Our Own Words project video

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