Podcasts

Unheard Voices: Young People in Care’s Experiences of Speaking to Doctors

Researcher Lauren Herlitz and theatre maker James Baldwin talked to 14 young people who were in care or were care leavers about their experiences of seeing a doctor. The frank conversation covers being able to trust a doctor, opening-up about mental health, being affected by trauma, and being judged by healthcare professionals. Lauren and James invited two experts in child health, Dr. Claire Agathou and Prof. Monica Lakhanpaul, to respond to young people’s views. They talk about the difficulties young people face in accessing healthcare and why some doctors find it hard to start conversations about mental health or trauma.

The conversations with young people, aged 13 - 22 years, were recorded face-to-face between November 2022 and April 2023 in Greater London and South England, and the dialogue with Claire and Monica was recorded online in September 2023.

This podcast was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through the Children and Families Policy Research Unit (PR-PRU-1217-21301). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. 

Read the full transcript here

Credits

We would like to thank all the young people who took part and the staff who supported them and enabled these conversations to happen. We would like to thank the health experts who took part. Thanks to James Baldwin for producing the podcast – to find out more about James’s work, visit jamescreates.com. Artwork by Lauren Herlitz and Andy Irvin.