Power of Peer Support Groups for Young Adults Ivy Evrard & Val Neff

Why are young adult support groups necessary?

Young Adulthood and Transition Young adulthood is a unique time of transition even for people who don’t live with mental illness. Often a time of moving out of the home structure that they are used to and needing to utilize new life skills Living with mental illness can make those transitions seem even more difficult. Transition to adult mental health services, ie. adult inpatient psychiatric wards Aging out of previous services One of the biggest transitional dilemmas How do young adults who live with mental illness make supportive social connections/friends? Transitioning from high school to college/working Can fall in-between the cracks, loss of safety net Potentially the first foray into freedom/independence, so how do you know if you are having too much fun? Ie. Substance use/abuse, drinking, etc. Having to learn to live with new people, ie. room mates Adjusting to having to do things you didn’t have to previously, ie. Cooking, laundry, cleaning, bills, scheduling appointments, etc. How do you find an apartment? Co-sign? Pay down-payment and rent? How do you get where you need to go if you don’t have a car? If you do have a car, how do you find insurance? How do you do your taxes? If you are not at a traditional 4-year college, how do you make social connections/friends?

Young Adults and Loneliness Young adults are more likely to feel lonely than older age groups. This loneliness is compounded for young adults living with mental illness, who can find it difficult to connect with others who don’t share this lived experience. They might try to hide their feelings and struggles from others because they feel ashamed, are worried about how other people might react, or are concerned about being a burden. However, young adults are positively impacted by moments of connection that they do have with others. They feel particularly supported when they are able to connect with others who understand what they are going through. They also benefit from the opportunity to be able to offer support to others with similar lived experience. A study from the Office for National Statistics found that 10% of people aged 16 to 24 were “always or often” lonely – the highest proportion of any age group. Loneliness was linked to a lack of permanence or sense of belonging, which can be common problems for young adults who are in a transitional stage of their life. Other factors that influence loneliness: illness and unemployment Many young adults living with mental illness find it difficult to hold down a job long enough to make supportive social connections with coworkers there, and the general realities of living with mental illness can feel very isolating. Marcus, M. A., Westra, H. A., Eastwood, J. D., & Barnes, K. L. (2012). What are young adults saying about mental health? An analysis of Internet blogs. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 14(1).

Support Groups In general, support groups can be a good and affirming space to be able to share your struggles and triumphs and make connections with others with similar experiences. However, young adults don’t readily attend general adult support groups. They feel like they can’t relate to the older adults in the groups. They feel like they have different issues and problems than older adults. They are seeking more of a social outlet than most of the older attendees.

What is YAST? YAST stands for young adult support and transition group It is a support group facilitated and attended by young adults It meets the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month

What makes YAST successful? YAST has a social media page so group members can connect and provide each other support outside of the group setting Consistency with facilitators YAST will hold social events that aren’t support group based i.e. game nights, pasta nights, bowling YAST connects with our group members in ways young adults typically communicate Go into what our social media page does so we can really highlight how group members will use it to support each other rather than a facilitator creating and building a support system For the most part it is always Val & Ivy who facilitate letting group members know we are invested in them and allows us to connect with members on a deeper level Social events we hold are sober and “team building” it allows members to have time to hang out and connect with others in a more laid back setting that’s not just focused on emotional support. We use social media not email because it really just isn’t the best way to communicate with our age group. We also use things like humor and memes to connect and talk about harder topics really highlight how this is different than how older adult groups typically run and address why humor/laughter is used.