Mental Health charity YoungMinds has today published the findings of an exclusive poll that reveals that one third of children and young people in the UK don’t know where to go to get help when they feel depressed or anxious and half of children and young people have been bullied. The top five most important issues to young people were sexual pressures, bullying, school stress, access to counselling and unemployment.
YoungMinds is committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people.The charity says that the UK is sitting on a “mental health time bomb” and that action is needed by the Government, schools and parents to help young people cope with the pressures of modern life.
Lucie Russell, YoungMinds’s campaigns director, said: “Every day we hear about the unprecedented toxic climate children and young people face in a 24/7 online culture where they can never switch off. Young people tell us they experience a continuous onslaught of stress at school, bullying, sexual pressures and bleak employment prospects. When this becomes too much for them they don’t know where to turn for help and when they do often the support just isn’t there for them. ”
YoungMinds is calling for a mass movement of change in children and young people’s mental health. The results of the poll were timed to coincide with the launch today of the government’s new Mental Health Action Plan, which sets out 25 areas where immediate action is called for to improve care, support and treatment of mental health problems. Speaking at the launch the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that change is needed to the way that the issue of mental health is approached, which he stated was “outdated”, and he pledged to improve the standards of mental health treatment and to bring the condition "out of the shadows”.
