Staying Healthy
Children described experiences with a range of medical and related professionals, a number recounting the availability of free healthcare, ease of access and treatment they were happy with. Sophie, aged 16, noted, however, that engagement with health services was often to seek treatment or support for an established issue rather than in the form of prevention. In relation to sexual health, for example, she noted that the free GUM clinic was based on something’s wrong, not, I need protection whilst mental health issues were responded too often at a time of crisis: We don’t do a lot on mental health before you kind of hit your breaking point really. You hit breaking point and then you get support. It’s not before.
Life on the Rock