Championing mental health support for young people in Ghana

Lauryn Acolatse, who graduated this July with a 2:1 BA (Hons) in Psychology with Counselling and Mental Health, spent four weeks volunteering in Senya, a community around two hours from the Ghanaian capital Accra.

Born and raised in the UK, Lauryn is half Ghanaian and had last visited the country in 2018. Ahead of the trip, Lauryn said she was eager to learn from the experience:

"It is going to be such a different way of life when it comes to working with young people," she said. "But I think there will be a lot that I'll be able to gain from it."

Lauryn's role was based across a psychiatric hospital and a children's home, supporting young people who have experienced trauma or difficult circumstances. She was involved in creative therapeutic activities, reflective exercises and the observation of counselling sessions with young people.

For Lauryn, that preparation started long before her flight to Accra. Alongside her studies, she worked as a teaching assistant in a special needs school.

"Through working with an agency, I've become more focused on going down that path. Being able to make some sort of difference to a young person is what I need to do."

The idea for the Ghana placement took root when Lauryn was searching for volunteering opportunities online. A conversation with the student funding team at Solent helped turn the idea into reality.

Lauryn says her degree has directly shaped how she approaches her work with young people:

"The mental health side of it has really stayed with me," she says. "You really have to get to know the person and understand what they might be going through to be able to try to help. And empathy, just being able to sit with the fact that not everyone is the same and not jumping to conclusions about what someone might be going through."

Lauryn returned to the UK with just enough time to settle back in before her graduation ceremony.