14/10/2009   Kate Duncan

I had the opportunity to attend the launch of a new 'depression'section of the website www.youthhealthtalk.org in London yesterday. The website is an informative and supportive resource for young people and contains a database of young peoples' experiences of illness and health. The site aims to provide a high quality evidence based approach to patient experience and is a useful resource for adolescents facing illness.               

The event was chaired by Jon Snow and the speakers included Sir Liam Donaldson, Ann Macpherson (the creator), Phillip Pullman (author), Professor Alan Stein from Oxford University and a young patient who has benefitted from and donated her experiences to the site.

The speakers linked well describing the creation, funding of the charity and aims of the new material. The detailed description offered portrayed the website as a unique and helpful resource for patients, families, friends and health workers - a browse through the site later confirmed this.

The creator, Ann Macpherson, also established it's successful parent site www.healthtalkonline.org which is a resource for adults. The development team hope that the adolescent site may be included as reading material for medical students and even school children. I think direction towards a useful and supportive website would be an effective part of a medical management plan for young adults and thought others may like to have a look at the site.

I am not aware of other similar sites and I think that this website can only enhance the medical care and recovery of younger patients through an effective medium that is widely available and familiar to many adolescents. Please let us know your thoughts.