As teenagers across much of the UK get their GCSE exam results, there is an acute sense that the pressure on them to succeed from a young age has been growing. That is perhaps one reason we are in the midst of a mental health crisis in our schools.
This is why the announcement that 100,000 teenagers in England and Wales will get extra guidance on this aspect of their wellbeing is extremely welcome. Prime Minister Theresa May pledged last week that teenagers will take part in an awareness course as part of the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme for 15 to 17 year olds, a community-based push to improve life skills.
Teaching young people about mental health is a vital step for them to learn to talk about what they are feeling and in building resilience. These are the tools we all need to help us cope with the stresses and strains of normal life.
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But given the scale of the problem – – is this enough?
It is clear that the UK’s child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) have been chronically underfunded. Along with the cuts to early intervention community services, this has raised barriers to accessing treatment, such as long waits for referrals.
At YoungMinds, the charity I head, we often receive calls from parents whose children have been turned away from services or asked to wait many months for treatment when a timely intervention is necessary.
Early intervention
The government must make sure that CAMHS funding reflects the true scale of need. But it is also important to focus on early intervention to prevent a young person’s mental health declining and requiring more specialised care.
While it isn’t the responsibility of schools to provide the kind of care that mental health services should, they do have an important role in promoting good mental health, resilience and wellbeing, as well as identifying problems when they first develop.
In April, YoungMinds launched its , which called on the UK government to rebalance our education system to give equal priority to the wellbeing of students and their academic achievements. The open letter we sent to the prime minister was met with overwhelming support from teachers, young people, educational professionals and parents, gaining over 10,000 signatures in a very short space of time.
As part of the campaign, we made five key recommendations to the government, including embedding an understanding of wellbeing, mental health and resilience in all teacher training.
The prime minister’s announcement, which will also see 10,000 NCS staff receive mental health training to provide the course, is a very encouraging start. However, with , and , it is clear that we need to start these conversations at a younger age and across the board.
At YoungMinds, we urge the prime minister to expand on this work to really make student wellbeing a priority for all schools.
Read more: Worried sick: What’s up with today’s rampant anxiety?; Why we worry: Understanding anxiety and how to help it
