When KIM Inspire, a wonderful North East Wales based mental health charity for children and young people came to us about a project they wanted to do, supporting Neurodivergent girls and young women, an area that has received little support so far, we jumped at the opportunity to help them. They have just come to the end of this project and we were delighted to receive this update.
From Amy Gray, Director of Operations at KIM Inspire
We were so fortunate to receive funding from the Neumark Foundation for a six-month research project which enabled us to focus on hearing and understanding the experiences of Neurodivergent girls and young women and those of their parents and caregivers. This is an area which historically had less focus than Neurodivergence in males, and as such, Neurodivergent females have been underrepresented and misunderstood.
During the funding period, we have worked closely with participants to find out about their experiences, and what they need to better support them in the different areas of their lives. We’ve used current research and the themes highlighted by participants to shape an approach to one-one work and group-work sessions which seek to recognise and affirm their Neurodivergence, validating the challenges and developing their strengths with the aim to build positive Neurodivergent identities.
In turn, this increases the likelihood of having their needs understood and met, leading to a reduction in the mental health difficulties experienced by so many Neurodivergent females.
During this research, we established connections with practitioners in other settings who also recognise the detrimental impact of unrecognised, misunderstood and unsupported Neurodivergence in females. This gave us the opportunity to share our frustrations with of the current approaches, to explore good practice and to think about different ways to respond to the complexities we’d identified.
The funding has been so valuable to KIM as it’s given us the time to really focus on this much-needed work, to build relationships with participants and to find out what is important to them with the goal of a more hopeful future where they have their needs met and can embrace their wonderful, authentic identities!
Quotes from participants reference their previous experiences with mental health services:
“I felt dismissed by them, they didn’t listen.”
“Trust is really important. I don’t trust them now. They didn’t see me.”
“I just really wanted to thank you for holding the group with you and inviting me. It was wonderful to be able to just talk and feel that comforting, accepting and understanding presence. I’ve never felt so comfortable with people I don’t know and both my parents have commented that it’s nice to see me so happy and suddenly so talkative.”
“I first got admitted to CAMHS when I was 11 years old. My mental health was initially noticed by a teacher when they noticed I had self-harmed and this was how my CAMHS referral started. My first experience at CAMHS was brief, as I found that the therapist didn’t truly listen to what I was saying and only listened to my dad who at the time I wasn’t especially close with so he was very unaware of what was happening with my mental health. This led to me being discharged from CAMHS and I felt that nothing had actually been improved and that my voice hadn’t been truly heard.
Exploring the idea of me maybe having Autism and ADHD has been interesting as it has always been a question in the back of my mind but I never brought it up with anyone so, for someone else to ask me if I had ever explored the idea separately with the ND girls and their parents/caregivers in one to one and group-work settings.
Going forward, we would like to be able to continue to respond to the significant (in volume and complexity) needs of neurodivergent girls and their families across a wider area with a dedicated service that will draw together what we have learnt so far with what we will continue to learn, in order to support as many of these ND girls and their families as possible.
It was surreal for me because it made me feel like I wasn’t overthinking but instead being reasonable about questioning it. Since this idea has been brought up, it has made me feel more hopeful and it has also allowed me to see some of the things that I do- that some of my family and friends don’t do-other people do, and that it can be a way of coping or masking.
I feel happy that I can access support from KIM to help me through this, as well as them helping me get support from my college and helping me get support for in the future for when I go to uni.
A’s Story
I feel in a way that this makes more sense as, things I do, other people that are exploring their Autism with KIM Inspire.”
Rebecca Neumark, CEO of The Neumark Foundation said “It has been a privilege to support this fantastic charity with a subject that so deserves this time. They really worked hard to gain knowledge, working partnerships and build research alongside young women to help find positive working practices to support girls and young women who have struggled alone for a long time without diagnoses or support. Thank you to Amy, Annie and all the team at KIM Inspire for the work you do.”
If you would like to find out more about KIM Inspire and the work they do, their website is https://kim-inspire.org.uk