An adult education: Learning and understanding what young service users and carers really, really want in terms of their mental well being

For the past decade nurse education has incorporated service user and carer perspectives into their programme and research agendas. Moving from rhetoric to the reality of embedding adult service user and carer knowledge into nurse education this paper discusses how this good practice was extended to young people under the age of 18. Globally, the mental health of young people is coming under the spotlight and based on this two "World Café" events focusing on young people and their mental well being were organised. Targeting a multi-agency audience the aim was to develop a partnership consortium, bringing together local organisations involved in promoting the mental well being of young people. This paper reports on the first World Café, led by two local young people's groups, 'Florescent Adolescent' and 'Vocal'. Following the presentations four important areas were identified (1) Inclusive rather than exclusive (2) Crystal ball gazing - young people's futures (3) A hole in the net - catching young people at the right time (4) Exposing the hidden agenda. The day resulted in three collaborative research proposals and the realisation that young people need opportunity to participate through utilising more innovative ways of engaging with the professional adult world. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.