In 2015 prior to May there were many promises in the media of support for mental health services in the UK. In the last year there had been wishes for parity of funding and staffing resources to emerge between physical and mental health. The previous Coalition Government had even enabled the publication of Future in Mind (see attachment) in which one can begin to see how better mental health service for children and young people can be realized. Since the election there had been mention of cuts to NHS funding and a new Conservative Government with a majority seeks to progress its agenda of 'Austerity.' Our National Health Service (NHS) could be subject to further privatization and health professionals could be asked to provide better quality care for patients for less money. How do we achieve excellence in health care in the modern age? If we want to improve the treatments for depression for young people how do we transform our service to help them with their involvement?

In North London, Wolpert et al 2014 had advanced the THRIVE model in consultation with young people. Essentially young people are properly assessed for depression and other problems. If they are able to help themselves then they can be sign-posted to access community resources e.g. counselling www.kooth.com for themselves. Others will have access to therapy, such as cognitive behaviour therapy for depression or anxiety. A third group may require more complex or highly specialized therapy such as individual dynamic psychotherapy or family therapy. Finally the fourth group need mainly crisis intervention owing to higher suicide risk and a tendency to behave in a more impulsive and irresponsible fashion which puts their lives or other people's lives at risk. Consequently all young people entering the service can be assessed initially and reallocated to each of the four areas of the pathway. Furthermore there is scope for the team to to embed suicide prevention strategies and to track if young people are getting better.

Please feel free to read the resources and offer comments and ideas. We still have to find a way to do our best to help young people with depression no matter what obstacles we face in the future financial/political world.

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