Young ‘lack family members to talk to’

THE BREAKDOWN of traditional family units, with fewer grandparents, aunts and uncles around for children to talk to about their problems, is behind a surge in mental health issues among young people, Dame Esther Rantzen said.

Dame Esther, founder and president of Childline,

inset, said the decrease in extended family units, where children can talk about problems they may be unable to express to their parents, was a key contributing factor to the unhappiness of young people.

Young people were also growing up in a world that was far more hostile and worrying than when the charity opened in 1986, she added, with everyone from Sir David Attenborough warning “about the end of the world” to school bullies adding to the pressure children face. Childline said the number of counselling sessions mentioning anxiety in 2017/18 had more than doubled in two years, up from 11,706 in 2015/16 to 21,297 in 2017/18. And more than a third of the counselling sessions provided over the phone or online in the last year were for young people experiencing problems with their mental and emotional health and wellbeing, the charity said. Speaking at the launch of Childline’s annual review, The Courage To Talk, in central London, Dame Esther said: “The question I’m sure that everyone here is asking is why? Why has this huge increase happened among young people?”