The end of last week brought more press reports of the worrying rise in mental health problems among children and young people in the UK.
Specifically, reports identified a rise in anxiety and stress, and associated with that, increases in rates of self harm and suicidal thoughts.
It seems at the moment that barely a week goes by without another report announcing such dramatic figures. It raises concerns about a generation of young people who are desperately struggling with the pressures life is throwing at them and finding it increasingly hard to cope.
None of this is news to anyone who works with young people. Every youth worker, teacher and children worker I know has been watching this gradual decline in the mental health of the children they work with for years. Friends and colleagues working in mental health have watched the increase in referrals. They've also seen the changes in the cases they are seeing: the increase in the number of younger children struggling and the drop in the average age that young people present with issues such as self harm, for example.
Frustration, not surprise
So my reaction on hearing the latest news is simple: frustration. We know young people are struggling, we know rates are rising. And while I know how vital it is that we report it, now I want to hear reports of how we might be able to respond: signs that we are taking it seriously and trying to help change things for the better. The significance of the situation in which we find ourselves is not new to us, but now we need to turn our attention to how we can reverse the trend and start to make it better.
Every one of the statistics that you read in the papers represents a real child or young person desperately unhappy and struggling with intense emotions that they do not have the maturity to know how to handle. Childhood in general and adolescence in particular is a time of rapid brain change. The brains of young people change dramatically during (typically) their teenage years. As the average age of the onset of puberty also gradually edges downwards we see these brain changes starting in children who are still at primary school.
Life and emotions are often challenging enough for these children. Adolescent emotions can be dramatic and unpredictable, triggered without much warning and rising or falling in an instant. Extreme highs and extreme lows are not unusual and part of the journey of adolescence is about learning to manage these and how to care for yourself: how to regulate your own emotion and manage the difficult moments in a positive way. It is imperative that we listen to our children and young people, who talk about worries, anxieties and pressures that they do not know how to deal with.
The other incredible cruelty of our current situation is this: at the same time as we see this soaring in rates of mental and emotional distress in children and young people, our mental health services are in crisis. Sixty-five per cent of schools reported it was becoming increasingly difficult to access support and treatment for the children they were concerned about.
Speak to anyone working in this field and they will have a story. The parent promised help for a desperately anxious child who then faced weeks of silence with no letter, no referral, no contact. The teenager told they are 'not ill enough' to be prioritised for treatment and sent home, effectively to get worse until they do reach the threshold. The suicidal young person who had confided in several people how desperate s/he was, but just couldn't run the gauntlet of getting an appointment with a GP, or face sharing their deepest fears with someone they were meeting for the first time.
We simply cannot carry on with this situation and it becomes all the more crucial when so many are suffering.
God-given potential
This is so important because of the amazing, God-given potential inside every one of these young people, many of whom think they are worthless and have little or nothing to offer the world.
With good treatment they can recover, learn how to manage their emotions, win back ground from their anxiety, feel back in control and replace desperate attempts to cope with more helpful strategies to manage difficult emotions. I have worked with many people who have clawed their way back out of anxiety, depression, self harm, eating disorders, suicidal feelings – amazing, inspiring, strong and brave people. But far too often this simply isn't happening. Frequently the mental health statistic of today becomes the long-term sufferer of the future: not because recovery isn't possible but because they struggle to access the help and support they need. Not just years but lives lost: limited, held back and struck down by their own emotions and the same brilliant minds that could do so much.
These young people are our future: they are the ones who could change the world. But we fail them because we do not give them the support they need to manage emotions that are beyond their years and so we risk losing them.
Recent weeks have also seen perhaps a glimmer of hope: announcements in response to a comprehensive report on the current state of mental health services in the UK of an investment in mental health of more than a billion pounds a year over the next five years. More than 1 billion is promised for child and adolescent mental health services.
We can only hope that this goes some way to starting to expand services to meet these very significant needs. I look forward to the day when the reports I read and hear about the mental health of this nation's young people are more positive: news of successes, triumphs and of groundbreaking new services looking to bring them hope and the brilliant future they so deserve.
Dr Kate Middleton is a psychologist and church leader. Follow her on Twitter @communik8ion
More information about mental health services can be found here.
