It’s Your Choice is delighted to announce that we have been successful in gaining the support of The Big Lottery to lead the development and delivery of a new counselling service across Hampshire.

“Healthy Transitions” is a counselling service targeted at young people aged 18-25 years old and will be delivered from various Hampshire locations.

Together with six project delivery partners the project will run for three years, beginning in January 2016, and provide counselling to around 1,500 young people in the New Forest, Southampton, Fareham, Romsey, Winchester, Aldershot and Fleet.

Chris Carey, Chief Executive of It’s Your Choice, said,

“At a time when concerns about poor mental health among young people are reaching unprecedented levels across the country this is a ground breaking development.

From experience we know that many young people making the transition to adulthood are dealing with unresolved difficulties caused by emotionally challenging experiences in their childhoods and teenage years.

They are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems. We know that they are more receptive to counselling at this transition stage to start addressing these issues. Yet this is the very age when support services start to fall away from them.

Our new Healthy Transitions project will put that right. There are very few counselling services targeted at this age range.”