The importance of transition... Beat Young Future’s Live Chat project

July 10, 2012 at 11:08 AM

By Leila Lahfa, Project Officer

We are now over halfway through the Beat Young Future’s Live Chat project, which began at the beginning of May and wraps up at the start of September.

The Live Chats are facilitated by Beat staff, an experienced Young Ambassador mentor, and harnesses the expertise of a professional who works in the field of the live chat topic.

The Live Chats have had a ‘transition’ focus – which is a buzzword across many Beat projects at the moment. But what do we mean by transition? Transition often means moving from one stage of life to another. In a young person’s life this can mean moving from school to college, getting their first job, to leaving hospital to go home after a sustained period of time.

Transition in life can be difficult however resilient people may be feeling but it can be even more of a struggle if someone has been out of action for some time due to a debilitating illness like an eating disorder.

The focus of the transition Live Chat themes were consulted with our Beat Young Ambassador mentors on the project. We all felt that it was necessary to tackle themes which affect both younger and older people, such as the tricky transition between Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Adult services with the advice of a clinical psychologist, as well as going back to education with the help of City College Norwich, to loving your body how it is naturally after an eating disorder. The latter was run by Natasha Devon of Body Gossip who has battled an eating disorder and now promotes body confidence to young people.

The live chats have had great feedback from the groups of young people who attend. The next Live Chat is on increasing employability skills on Wednesday 11 July at 7pm. If you are aged between 14 – 24 visit the Beat Young Futures Live Chat page and sign up here to attend and receive expert advice on this topical issue.