This week is Children’s Mental Health Week, and the Looneychick blog explores what’s good and bad in Children’s mental health in the UK.

The situation of children’s mental health?

According to NHS data analysed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists for BBC News, some 409,347 children needed help. Between April 2021 and October 2021, the number of children aged under 18 needing care increased by almost 80% compared to the same period in 2019.

The issues range from self-harm to eating disorders.

What’s good in children’s mental health?

The Government has since promised an extra £79m for improving mental health support in England, including 400 support teams by 2023. Still, the charity Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition has warned this will only cover about a third of England’s pupils. 

The mental health charity Place2Be runs children’s Mental Health Week and, this year, they have teamed up with Bafta kids to organise two special virtual assemblies hosted by celebrity guests.

What’s bad in children’s mental health?

The problem is the lack of money in the UK available no matter what age you are. We all know previous governments have said they have pledged cash into mental health, but where exactly does it go? Towards psychiatric doctors who have no idea what they are talking about. I have been misdiagnosed. That’s how much psychiatric doctors help. Two or three mental health nurses or mentors could be employed on the salary of one doctor and his big fat pension!

A Cornish mother who has to keep her 17-year-old disabled son strapped in the car for 90 per cent of the day to keep them both safe, has made a desperate plea for help caring for him.

Matthew Harvey has a rare disability called Phelan McDermid Syndrome. He has a severe learning disability that gives him the cognitive ability of a two-year-old, he has autistic traits and it makes him aggressive.

Every day his mother, Sally calls to ask for help. Every day she is told there is nothing available. No residential care, no additional respite.

However, across the border in Devon, she had 70 hours a week of respite including overnight care. In Cornwall, she had just ten hours a week and no overnight care.

This proves that Cornwall is a particularly bad area in the UK for not only Children’s mental health but also for adults.

Where do we go from here?

You can get involved with raising awareness and money for mental health. However, the number of children suffering from mental health is increasing by the day, and it will continue to worsen if no new treatments and research are done.

Twinkl approached me and asked me to contribute some tips and ideas for the wellbeing of children this Autumn.

What is Twinkl?

Twinkl is a website aimed at teachers and parents that provides access to inspirational lesson plans, schemes of work, assessment, interactive activities, resource packs, PowerPoints, teaching ideas.

 The Looneychick Blog is delighted to be featured in Twinkl’s recent blog – Autumn Leaves: Wellbeing Tips & Activities for Children.

Check out some of their resources for wellbeing and resources for mental health, including in partnership with Mind charity.

Thank you so much to all at Twinkl, and I hope my tips are helpful. Remember to keep your children’s mental and physical health active during the Autumn and Winter months. 

It’s easy to laze on the couch and watch TV or play video games during the dark, cold evening but getting out and about wrapped up is much healthier. 

Both parents and children will benefit from socialising with other parents and children and from keeping those pesky colds at bay.

Remember to sanitise and take lots of vitamin C and D.

Let us know in the comments section what you will be doing to keep your children occupied during the Autumn and Winter months?

Last week was Children’s mental health week but how successful has this been and what new initiatives are there to help young ones cope with the current pandemic?

Now more than ever its important to make sure that the youth of today are properly nurtured as many have the added stresses of being isolated from friends, lack of interaction with teachers and learning new ways of learning and life.

What many people forget is the fact that mental health in both adults and children isn’t new. It has however, increased due to lifestyle changes being forced by the current worldwide pandemic.

Children’s mental health week takes place once a year on the first week of February.

The charity Place2Be sets up resources to help primary schools celebrate each year.

As part of this years theme “Express yourself” children were encouraged to find ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity.

Expressing themselves through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that they enjoy.

Sadly, a lot more research needs to be done for both children and adults in research and treatments.

Its all very well having 2 or 3 weeks a year when mental health is discussed by the media and charities but everyone needs to make sure that mental health is being researched properly.

Children should have mental health education in schools both secondary and primary and they should also have on site counsellors.

Only then, there will be less suicides Mental health is still, even in 2021 not taken seriously due to lack of funding and treatments available.

Mental health sufferers may no longer live in isolation physically but mentally there is still a stigma.

How many of you are guilty of ignoring your loved ones mental health? Avoiding them when you know they are feeling low?

Please feel free to share how you encourage your children to stay positive throughout the pandemic and any successful treatments you feel have worked?

What are your thoughts children’s mental health week? Were you and your child or children aware of this week?

Mental Health researcher Ruth Spence has been accepted for the ‘Back Her Business’ scheme by Natwest & Crowdfunder, to help fund a children’s mental health picture book.

The Back Her Business scheme is a business start-up programme where contribute funds equivalent to 50% of a crowdfunding target.

The book is a picture book, so for children under the age of 10, she developed it with some clinical psychologists’ input. 

 It’s about a girl called Charlie who moves house and leaves all her friends behind, but then she meets a black dog.

The dog in the book makes Charlie miserable. For example (it goes through various common symptoms of depression, such as the fact that she has to carry the dog everywhere, making her tired.

The dog likes to sneak up and bark at her, so she finds it hard to relax and gets headaches.

She never knows when it will surprise her, so she finds it difficult to sleep at night). 

Charlie’s mum notices that she’s unhappy and decides her new friend has to go.  She knows when you think sad thoughts, you feel sad, and when you feel sad, it can stop you from doing the things that make you feel good.

Ruth said: “I decided to write the book because I’ve read so much about how common mental health problems are on the rise and they are increasing in children too.

 If people get help early, they tend to have better outcomes, but services are stretched so many people can’t access them, or their problems aren’t considered severe enough to get treatment.” 

The book isn’t going to solve these problems, but Ruth hopes it can open up some discussions around mental health and help people become more aware of depression.

She added: “My focus is on how adverse life events interact with personal vulnerability to cause depression.

I like that way of thinking because it shows the external world can impact the internal world, explaining why anyone can get depressed given the right circumstances. That help should focus on society as well as the individual. “

Ruth is hoping this book might help children recognise that what they’re going through is ok or it might make other children who aren’t having problems realise that other people might and that that’s ok too.

 She’s also hoping it can be another resource for people to use that’s easily accessible and helpful – in it, I try to give a couple of useful things they can do.

They talk about the dog, and some things Charlie can do which she’ll enjoy and some things she can do that she’ll feel proud of.

They do a bit of each, and the dog gets smaller and quieter – it doesn’t go away entirely, but they know how to handle it if it gets bigger again.

The children’s mental health picture book features a discussion guide and some activities at the end of the book.

There are also some questions like what do you do when you feel sad? What makes it better? What makes it worse?  (The book doesn’t use the word depression at any point).

Let us know in the comments section what you think?

 

 

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week, so we are highlighting the importance of funding and research needed in the UK for both children’s and adult’s mental health.

Did you know that 1 in 10 children and young people in the UK experience mental health problems?

According to mental health.org.uk, a worry 70% of children and young people who experience a mental health problem have not had appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age.

Most children grow up mentally healthy, but surveys suggest that more children and young people have problems with their mental health today than 30 years ago.

That’s probably because of changes in the way we live and how that affects the experience of growing up.

Here’s a story about a girl who committed suicide published last year in the Daily Mirror.

A heartbroken mum whose daughter took her own life after being bullied on Snapchat. Megan Evans, 14, was found dead at her home after a secret battle against cyber-bullies that she kept from her parents.

Children are now in a society where technology runs everything, and if you haven’t got the latest phone or computer, your child could be at risk of being bullied just for that reason.

There is also a lot of online bullying, which can lead to many children and young people trying to or taking their own lives.

The Cyberbullying hotline claims that 42% of teenagers with tech access report being bullied online over the past year.

Of the 69% of teens that own their computer or smartphone, 80% are active on social media with the average teen sending 60 texts per day – reducing face-to-face communication skills.

Other children like Elle Homes take their own lives despite showing no signs of being depressed.

The Teenager was just 15-years-old when she took her life.

In the Daily Express, her mother described her as “a dream child”.

Elle Holmes is described as a brilliant, popular, and gifted schoolgirl who showed no signs of depression in the run-up to her sudden death.

Her mother Leigh said the youngster had a “spiral into darkness” that occurred over just a few hours where she became overwhelmed and “snapped”.

She later discovered her daughter had been visiting pro-anorexia websites and was self-harming as she suffered modern pressures surrounding her image.

“I don’t know why my loved, brilliant, popular, talented, funny baby made that decision. She left no note.

“She said nothing to the little brother she adored or to her boyfriend, or her close inner circle of friends.

“There was no long-suffering depression, or slow descent into despair.

“The spiral into darkness seemed to occur over just a few short hours as her mind became overwhelmed, and snapped.

“People who saw her in the weeks, days, and hours before her death would have said that she was a child suffering from depression.”

Sadly too many children are suffering from mental health due to the changes in today’s society such as peer pressure, social media, and the media.

What’s even worse is that there isn’t enough research and funding into mental health and therefore there isn’t a cure, and there aren’t enough facilities for mental health patients both old and young to get the help that is required.

Will you be taking part in Children’s Mental health Week 2018?

If you have a child who is suffering from mental health, please email admin@looneychickblog.co.uk.