Prioritizing young people's emotional health support needs through participatory research

Introduction Youth mental health is a global concern. Emotional health promotes mental health and protects against mental illness. Youth value self-care for emotional health, but we need better understanding of how to help them look after their emotional health. Participatory research is relevant, since meaningful engagement with youth via participatory research enhances the validity and relevance of research findings and supports young people's rights to involvement in decisions that concern them. Aim We aimed to develop a participatory approach for involving youth in research about their emotional health support preferences. Method Our team included a young expert-by-experience. We developed a qualitative, participatory research design. Eleven youth (16-18 years) participated in focus groups, followed immediately by a nominal group exercise in which they analysed the data, thus enhancing methodological rigour. Results This process highlighted youth perspectives on self-care strategies for emotional health. Discussion and Implications for Practice: Our simple participatory research approach generated trustworthy and credible findings, which accurately reflect youth perspectives and are consistent with the literature, endorsing our method. Young people said that they want reassurances of quality and safety when accessing digital mental health resources. These findings can inform future development of youth-oriented digital mental health resources

Transcending Colonial Legacies: From Criminal Justice to Indigenous Women’s Healing

This chapter explores how institutional inter-generational trauma is perpetuated by criminal justice interventions into the lives of Indigenous women. We illustrate how past and present colonial policies and practices have shaped Indigenous women’s lives and resulted in disproportionate incarceration across welfare and penal domains. The chapter then examines the ways in which the criminal justice system characterises trauma to problematise and pathologise Indigenous women. It implores a paradigm shift from prisons to healing places that are nurtured by and for Indigenous women. It illustrates practices of healing, well-being and self-determination models embedded in Indigenous women’s organisations and services