Zac
Zac’s brother took his own life at the beginning of the month we were asked to support him.
At the beginning of mentoring, he identified himself and his family as being in shock at what had happened. His YP-Core measure of emotional distress was a high 38 out of 40 and he described himself as feeling very sad and low in his mood. He didn’t feel able to speak with his parents about how he was feeling because he did not want to worry or upset them.
After a few sessions, he did speak with another of his family members but said more than once over the 12 months of our weekly work that he really felt that the mentoring sessions were the only place he could use to talk about how he was thinking and feeling.
12 months later Zac’s YP-Core measure of emotional distress had reduced from 38 to 04 and he agreed that mentoring was no longer needed, although he wanted to be seen once each term so that if he began to struggle again he could easily access the support.
He described himself as having been really glad that the mentoring was there for him and said he had been able “to move forward on a positive, upward line” as a result.
*Names have been changed and models have been used to protect the identity of young people.