Make children’s mental health a national priority
Lynne Neagle AM on how more must be done in terms of early intervention to protect the mental wellbeing and promote resilience in our children
MENTAL health is a huge issue for children and young people in Wales. Exam pressures, keeping up on social media and cyberbullying have become real problems in recent times. It is estimated that three children in an average size classroom have a mental health issue and that by the age of 14, half of all mental health problems will have begun.
That is why I am glad as chair of the National Assembly’s cross-party Children, Young People and Education Committee to call on the Welsh Government to make the emotional and mental wellbeing and resilience of our children and young people a national priority.
Among the issues to emerge in our evidence gathering process was that over the past three years Wales has seen a significant increase in selfharm admission to A&E departments.
In 2016, there were 16 suicides in the 15-19 age group; the highest rate in five years and second highest in 12 years. In the same year, Childline Cymru recorded a 20% increase in calls relating to suicide.
These figures are deeply concerning – which is why we want to see much more being done in terms of early intervention and building our children and young people’s emotional resilience.
With the introduction of a new curriculum in Wales, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to embed emotional resilience and learning into our schools. This is not just our view – other organisations, including the Children’s Commissioner, the Samaritans and the police have also called for the curriculum to include mental health.
We are not suggesting that teachers should become mental health experts. But we would like to see everyone who cares, volunteers or works with children and young people trained in emotional and mental health awareness to help tackle issues of stigma, promote good mental health and enable signposting to support services where necessary.
We were told during our inquiry that a lot of teachers are afraid of saying the wrong thing. That is why we are pushing for the inclusion of basic mental health training – including how to talk about suicide – to be part of initial teacher training and continuous professional development.
Suicide is the most extreme manifestation of emotional and mental distress, and any suicide is one too many. The importance of enabling people to talk about it is key. It is a point I have heard made many times by the Samaritans and Papyrus, a charity working to prevent young suicide, and is the subject of one of our report’s recommendations.
I am a big supporter of the work these charities do. They are absolutely clear that talking about suicide and self-harm actually reduces selfharm and suicide attempts and increases help-seeking behaviour.
We really need to enable people – particularly those that work with children and young people – to feel comfortable having these difficult conversations. I think it is absolutely vital everyone who comes into contact with young people understands the importance of emotional resilience and is able to talk about it.
As part of our inquiry, we visited Ysgol Pen y Bryn in Colwyn Bay, a primary school that has embedded mindfulness across its infant and junior school teaching.
There we saw first-hand what can be achieved through a whole-school approach to wellbeing and good mental health. Children as young as six told us that mindfulness helped them when they were worried, nervous or anxious.
In contrast, the young people at Tŷ Llidiard, the unit for children and young people in south Wales who require in-patient care, said more needed to be done to raise awareness about mental health and to enable them to talk about their concerns. Many of them said they had suffered with mental health problems for a long time before they had access to any form of support, specialist or otherwise.
Without a fundamental step change in our approach to providing mental health services at an early stage both through education in our schools and early intervention services, I think specialist services will continue to be over-stretched and children and young people will wait too long for the support they need.
■ Lynne Neagle is the Assembly Member for Torfaen and Chair of the Assembly’s Children, Young People and Education Committee.
■ Read the full report Mind over Matter: A report on the step change needed in emotional and mental health support for children and young people in Wales at the website of the National Assembly for Wales.
We were told during our inquiry that a lot of teachers are afraid of saying the wrong thing