The Mental Health Crisis - What Mental Health Crisis?
Schools are not places traditionally associated with
promoting positive mental health, at least not in an overt way. In general there is a ‘pull your socks up and
get on with it’ attitude amongst many teachers. There is a shift however, as the current generation appear
to be suffering from increased problems with their mental health. Some teachers really do believe it is just
attention seeking, others are concerned but feel unable to match
the demands placed on them by this ‘crisis’.
But is there really a crisis? Is the mental health of our young people
worse today than ever or are there other explanations?
I think this question is more complicated than we realise
and we are all too quick to blame social media.
As a teacher I have seen all sorts of students with all sorts of issues,
but anorexia and depression was rife amongst my peers at school (and that was
quite a long time ago), so what has changed?
Are more teenagers struggling with mental
health issues?
This is a really hard
question to answer. Research has had mixed
results. Fink et al. (2015) suggests
an increase of emotional problems between 2009 and 2014 for girls, but a
decrease for boys. This increase is echoed in a review by Borr et al.
(2014). But other studies such as Green et al. (2005) suggest no
significant change (more recent data is expected to be published next year). Burt (2016) reports a substantial increase in
hospital admissions for self-harm in under 17s.
So it does look like there might be, but studies comparing mental health
in the 70s, 80s and 90s with youth of today relies on reports from parents which
may not be as accurate as we would like.
Certainly people are reporting that there are more mental
health issues amongst young people (parents, teachers and young people themselves). But is this a sign of the times? We are more
open about mental health; the amazing work of so many charities is reducing the
stigma of mental health problems so people feel able to ask for help. Are children
happier to talk to adults and adults are quicker to recognise when there is an
issue? If this is the case then we are
more likely to see an increase in mental health issues.
It is also important to recognise the role the media has on
the general population’s perception of mental health. The reporting of mental
health in the mainstream media has meant that everyone is talking about it, so
regardless of what is actually happening it looks like there is a mental health
crisis by the way it is reported. So
when teachers and parents are asked about mental health is it surprising they
are reporting more problems when it is at the forefront of public psyche?
Headlines on mental health are increasing so more people are aware of the issues surrounding young people and mental health
Why aren't mental health services coping?
Anecdotally there was a time when
CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) would deal with referrals as
soon as they came in and you didn’t need to be at crisis point. Now you can be waiting a good 9 months
(personal experience is testament to this) to see someone. This isn’t simply because more children and young people (CYP) being referred to them it is also because the
service itself has been subject to funding cuts (Wolpert et al., 2014) and the
criteria for getting treatment have changed so there has to be something
seriously wrong before you can access services (Frith, 2016). CYP are now unable to access help at the
early stages of a crisis which would, in the past, have enable problems to be addressed early on
stopping them getting worse. There is no NHS
service for those with mild to moderate difficulties so the charity sector
fills this gap in schools and that means the help and support you get depends very much on where you go to school.
So is there are mental health crisis amongst our youth?
Well there is evidence that young people are experiencing more
issues, but it is not necessarily all of their own making. Yes, more people are coming forward and
showing worrying behaviours such as self-harming, but adults are much more open
about mental health and also much more able to identify and intervene where
mental health might be a problem. So it
is perhaps not unsurprising that more young people are seeking help, and surely
this is a good thing. However, the lack
of services and help available mean that problems may escalate where they could
have been reduced, further exacerbating a ‘crisis’.
We tend to use the word ‘crisis’ as though our CYP are all at breaking point. It seems a little like we are blaming
the younger generation for not being able to cope with the world adults have
created for them. The ‘crisis’ we
constantly refer to is a combination of factors that mean that CYP today are
allowed to speak about how they feel and how they are struggling, but then receive
little or no help until they reach a crisis point. There is not going to be a quick fix, we cannot just blame young people. The issues run across many organisations and society as a whole, so perhaps we can call it a crisis, just redefine what the crisis is.
Always finish on a positive note
I have taught in a variety of schools and there are many young people out there who are doing all sorts of amazing things, despite the world around them, and we should not forget to celebrate that!
Please do - follow - like - share using the social media buttons on this page.