This paper discusses the issue of adolescent exclusion from the public (playgrounds, beaches, roads) and private realm (homes) and its link to their sense of community belonging, identity, and mental health.

This research project employed a rights-based approach, and such a methodology focuses on research with, rather than research about, children and adolescents. In line with this philosophy, a wide range of qualitative participatory methodologies were employed with children and adolescents. In total, 411 children and adolescents (3–17 years) took part in consultation workshops across the county.

From the age of 11 onwards, children report a sense of ‘not belonging’ to recognised ‘children’s places’ such as playgrounds. Young adolescents report being actively excluded from public and private spaces. The effects of this exclusion are examined in relation to their sense of belonging, identity, and well-being.

Exclusionary practices appear to be increasing and impacting on younger children in both private and public spaces. This forced exclusion of children and adolescents from the public and private realm challenges their sense of belonging or connectedness which is associated with low self-esteem, high levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. A more inclusive, rights-based approach should be employed in all aspects of public realm design that actively seeks and incorporates the views of children and adolescents as well as the more dominant voice of the adult.

In recent years, Northern Ireland has seen an increase in the numbers of asylum seekers and refugees. Given its status as a post-conflict region, this is a relatively new phenomenon for the area. Northern Ireland is also the only part of the United Kingdom (UK) without a refugee integration strategy. In 2016, we conducted an extensive study for the racial equality unit of the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister in Stormont on the everyday life experience of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland with view to understanding how service delivery and notions of integration/inclusion impact.

This was a mixed methods study using quantitative survey methods and in-depth semi-structured interviews with service providers, asylum seekers, refugees and new UK citizens. We examined a range of service provision such as education, labour, legal provision, housing and health.

This article examines the issue of mental health with respect to asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland. The results delineate how asylum seekers and refugee’s mental health is dramatically impacted by the asylum system in Northern Ireland (and hence, the UK) and the dearth thereof, of particular and necessary supports and access issues in the space of health and mental health in Northern Ireland. We describe how post-migration stressors experienced through the UK asylum system further compound mental health issues. The findings provide a focus on the asylum system, housing and employment.

Our research found a dearth of mental health supports in Northern Ireland and concluded that the asylum system in the UK (as a form of post-migration stressor) further exacerbates and contributes to poor mental health and well-being for many asylum seekers and refugees.

Often referred to as psychotic experiences, unusual perceptual experiences, thoughts and beliefs (UPTBs) are not uncommon in youth populations. Phenomenological studies of these experiences are lacking. This study aimed to (1) describe the phenomenological characteristics of UPTBs in a sample of young adolescents and (2) explore how young people made sense of those experiences.

Participants were 53 young people aged 11–13 years from a population-based study of mental health. All met criteria for UPTBs following clinical interviews as part of the study. Documentary data on UPTBs in the form of transcribed notes, recorded during clinical interviews, were analysed using content analysis. Data on UPTBs were coded, organised into categorical themes and quantified using descriptive statistics. Qualitative themes on how participants made sense of their experiences were identified.

Participants reported UPTBs across four domains: auditory verbal, auditory non-verbal, non-auditory perceptual experiences and unusual thoughts and beliefs. UPTBs were phenomenologically rich and diverse. Young people sought to make sense of their experiences in multiple ways: normalising them, externalising them by attributing them to paranormal entities and distancing them from psychiatric explanations. Uncertainty about the source of UPTBs was identified as a superordinate theme.

Findings from this study offer new insights into the phenomenological qualities and characteristics of UPTBs in young adolescents. They also reveal that early adolescents may not make sense of their experiences within a psychiatric framework. These findings highlight the need to develop a more phenomenologically sensitive and nuanced approach to studying UPTBs in young people.

Irish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic minority population in Ireland, with poor life expectancy. This study aims to identify factors associated with reported discrimination and how this affects their experiences of accessing and quality of health services, including mental health.

The All Ireland Traveller Health Study was a cross-sectional census study in 2010. All Traveller families completed a survey questionnaire (n = 6540), and at random an adult selected from the family completed either a health status (health status study = 1547) or health services utilisation survey (HSU = 1576). Experience of discrimination (EOD) from the census was analysed in relation to HSU data on services used in the previous 12 months and reported experiences of access and quality of that health service. Census variables were analysed in relation to EOD and perceived discrimination (PD).

In the final models, EOD and PD were significantly associated with socio-demographic, socio-cultural and living conditions. The multivariate odds of reporting EOD ranged from OR 1.84 to 2.13 and were significant for those reporting worse opportunities in accessing health services, mental health (p = 0.001), hospitals (p < 0.001) and public health nurses (p < 0.001). The multivariate odds of reporting EOD ranged from OR 1.95 to 2.71 and remained significant for those who reported they had poorer experiences than others when using health services, quality of experience (OR 2.18, p =< 0.001), trust in providers (OR 1.95, p =< 0.001) and appropriate information (OR 2.71, p =< 0.001).

Travellers experience high levels of discrimination which negatively affects their engagement with health services. Culturally competent services need to be developed.

To explore the phenomenology of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) in a clinical sample of young people who have a ‘non-psychotic’ diagnosis.

Ten participants aged 17–31 years with presentation of emotionally unstable personality disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder and frequent AVHs were recruited and participated in a qualitative study exploring their subjective experience of hearing voices. Photo-elicitation and ethnographic diaries were used to stimulate discussion in an otherwise unstructured walking interview.

‘Non-psychotic’ voices comprised auditory qualities such as volume and clarity. Participants commonly personified their voices, viewing them as distinct characters with which they could interact and form relationships. There appeared to be an intimate and unstable relationship between participant and voice, whereby voices changed according to the participants’ mood, insecurities, distress and circumstance. Equally, participants reacted to provocation by the voice, leading to changes in mood and circumstance through emotional and physical disturbances. In contrast to our previous qualitative work in psychosis, voice hearing was not experienced with a sense of imposition or control.

This phenomenological research yielded in-depth and novel accounts of ‘non-psychotic’ voices which were intimately linked to emotional experience. In contrast to standard reports of voices in disorders such as schizophrenia, participants described a complex and bi-directional relationship with their voices. Many other features were in common with voice hearing in psychosis. Knowledge of the phenomenology of hallucinations in non-psychotic disorders has the potential to inform future more successful management strategies. This report gives preliminary evidence for future research.

Hallucinations and delusions that occur in the absence of a psychotic disorder are common in children and adolescents. Longitudinal phenomenological studies exploring these experiences are notably lacking. The objective of the current paper was to explore the phenomenology and characteristics of hallucinations and delusions from early adolescence to early adulthood.

Participants were 17 young people aged 18–21 years from the general population, all of whom had a history of childhood hallucinations and/or delusions. Longitudinal data on the phenomenological characteristics and attributions of reported hallucinatory and delusional phenomena spanning nine years were explored using content analysis.

Hallucinatory and delusional phenomena were transient for two-thirds of the sample. The remaining one-third reported reoccurring hallucinatory and delusional phenomena into early adulthood. In those, two typologies were identified: (1) Paranormal typology and (2) Pathological typology. The former was characterised by hallucinatory and delusional phenomena that were exclusively grounded in subcultural paranormal or spiritual belief systems and not a source of distress. The latter was characterised by delusion-like beliefs that were enmeshed with individuals’ mood states and a source of distress. The perceived source, the subcultural context and how young people appraised and integrated their experiences differentiated the Paranormal and Pathological typologies.

Not all hallucinatory and delusion-like experiences are psychotic-like in nature. To reliably differentiate between pathological and non-pathological hallucinations and delusions, assessments need to explore factors including the phenomenology of individuals’ experiences, how people make sense and appraise them, and the subcultural contexts within which they are experienced.

Irish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic minority (IEM) with poor health outcomes. Whilst they constitute less than 1% of the Irish population, they account for 10% of national young adult male suicide statistics.

A rapid review of scientific publications related to mental health and suicide in Irish Travellers was undertaken following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Searches of PubMed, PsycINFO and Google Scholar were performed. Eligibility criteria included: (i) Irish Travellers/Gypsy Travellers; (ii) information on mental health/suicide/self-harm; (iii) psychosocial anthropological perspectives of mental health; (iv) publications in english. Data on studies including design, methods, participants and key findings were extracted using a spreadsheet template.

From 5160 scientific references over the past 20 years, 19 papers made reference to Traveller mental health, and only 5 papers made specific data-based reference to suicide in Travellers. It was only when we qualified Travellers as being ‘Irish Travellers’ in our scientific review did we detect meaningful references to their existence as an IEM, and their health and well-being. Due to sample sizes and heterogeneity in design, results were synthesised narratively.

This paper draws together strands from the disciplines of psycho/socio/anthropological perspectives to gain deeper insights into mental health and suicide in Irish Travellers. In a knowledge vacuum, it behoves the scientific community to explain the value of scientific research and rigour to both policymakers as well as Travellers, shifting the existing discourse towards new knowledge and understanding around mental health and suicide in Travellers.