Young Adults, Mental Health & Homelessness

An exhibition of images taken by young adults experiencing homelessness to inform a co-designed mental health support programme.

To make counselling more accessible and engaging to young people experiencing homelessness and to fully understand the needs of young adults experiencing homelessness, Dublin Simon collaborated with young adults using their services and with UCD researchers in a process called co-design. Co-design can help create solutions that are more relevant, effective, and useful to the people.

Expressing yourself, personal views and emotions through words can be very difficult. Young people experiencing homelessness took pictures of what mattered in their lives. The displayed photographs were all taken by young people aged between 18-24 years experiencing homelessness in Dublin. The conversations prompted by these photos identified complex challenges that young homeless people face, and that impact their mental health and wellbeing. Through the co-design process, they created a prototype of a mental health service that met the needs of young homeless people.

These photos were taken by young people of very similar ages to many of the students who frequent the James Joyce library at UCD. The exhibition can resonate with the students, in addition to raising awareness and demonstrating how young people from all walks of life can be involved in research.