Just a drop in the ocean
The importance of child mental health has become more widely accepted than ever before, as the myriad impacts of the pandemic and public healthcare measures have continued to take a toll on children and young people.
When it comes to their child’s experience at school, many parents continue to be concerned about a range of mental health and wellbeing-related issues.
In addition to greater experience of homework and exam stress, parents of children 11-18 years old significantly are more likely to report experience of anxiety, pressure to engage with social media, depression, and online abuse.
This highlights the additional weight of responsibility on schools at secondary level and beyond to support young people’s mental health at the stage they become most vulnerable to social, emotional and academic pressures.
Even at primary school level, almost a third of parents say their child has experienced homework stress (30%) and anxiety issues (32%), while well over a quarter (29%) say their child has been bullied.
More than one in 10 primary parents report that their child has experienced depression (13%), social media pressure (14%) and online abuse (13%).
When it comes to mental health, parents want to see mental health support workers embedded in schools to provide timely support and professional, age-appropriate counselling services.
The recent announcement by Government of money for this is welcome but a drop in the ocean compared to the need.
Sadly, school itself appears a major contributor to children’s poor mental health and there is an urgent
need to address this.
Parentkind CEO John Jolly.