Mental health charities have published a “roadmap” to transform the services and outcomes for children and young people by 2035.
Future Minds describes the decline in young people’s mental health in the UK as “one of the biggest challenges of our time” with huge implications for education, health, the economy as well as welfare and justice policies.
It wants the government to “turn the tide on this crisis” and highlights four key areas in which change is needed.
Its report states that rates of distress and diagnosable mental illness among young people have risen sharply as a result of “stagnant living standards, rising child poverty, lasting impacts of the pandemic and online harms”.
High levels of demand
At the same time, specialist services are unable to cope with the levels of demand despite poor youth mental health threatening the government’s priorities on economic growth, skills and productivity.
Future Minds, which is led by the Centre for Mental Health, Centre for Young Lives, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition and YoungMinds, with support from the Prudence Trust, focuses on four main recommendations:
- Expanding community-based early intervention, including more youth settings, dedicated link workers and expanding mental health support teams – including school counselling – to meet a wider range of need
- Expanding specialist mental health care to a wider range of therapeutic interview within the NHS, including art and play therapies, psychotherapy. The report also pointed to making mental health a central component of local health offerings to ensure collaboration between different teams
- Additional funding for NHS England’s new model of inpatient care and reforms to the Mental Health Act, which should be driven by local decision-making
- Harnessing tried and tested technology, including purpose-guilt AI interventions, to widen support to services “while complementing, not replacing, the essential human relationships young people need with trusted professionals”
Decisive action can close the treatment gap, improve outcomes, and reduce long-term costs to society
The report concluded: “Transforming children and young people’s mental health in England could have huge and far-reaching benefits for them, for society and for the economy.
“It must be central to the Government’s “moral mission” to change the course for the current generation of children and young people.
“The evidence is clear: rising rates of distress, limited access to effective support, and limited action to support mental health at a population level threaten the wellbeing of a generation – while also placing substantial pressure on public services and the economy.
“This roadmap shows that decisive action can close the treatment gap, improve outcomes for children and young people, and reduce long-term costs to society.
“By prioritising community-based support across the spectrum of need, expanding access to diverse and effective interventions and harnessing the power of digital innovation, we can ensure help reaches children and young people where they are, before crises occur.”
