ABSTRACT
In Western societies, adults make the rules, set the standards, determine priorities and criteria, judge value, appropriateness and relevance, control resources and administer consequences. This is apparent in the policies and practices of the mental health field where adults take responsibility for determining the realities of young people’s lives and intervening in accordance with these determinations. In conversations between mental health workers and young people, language can be a place of struggle. Meanings are often constructed about young people’s life circumstances which may not fit with their lived experience.
Mental health promotion projects that adopt a community development approach endeavour to develop respectful relationships with the target group. When the focus is young people, this means engaging in youth participation. Youth partnership accountability is a very respectful and enabling approach to youth participation through which young people have significant direction and control over a project. This paper will describe some elements of youth partnership accountability in transforming relationships between adults and young people in the context of the successful CHAMPS rural youth mental health promotion project (Community Health Adolescent Murraylands Peer Support).
