Strategically Tackling Mental Ill Health in Young People

Last month we celebrated children’s mental health week and met with many of you at our online event on how the church can respond to the mental health needs of young people. If you missed that event you can catch up here. 

At the end of February, The Resolution Foundation and the Health Foundation published their report ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ exploring the scope and impact of young people’s poor mental health as well as unpacking possible solutions. 

The research reveals a close connection between mental wellbeing and employment. 18-24 year olds with mental health problems are more likely to be out of work than their healthy peers of this age-group. Non-graduates with mental health problems are particularly disadvantaged. This problem starts earlier in a young person’s life with one in eight 11-16 year olds with poor mental health missing more than 15 days of school per term. This is in contrast with 1 in 50 healthy individuals in this age group missing more than 15 days of school per term. 

Recommendations from the Resolution Foundation include more investment in mental health support in schools. Currently 44% of children and young people have access to Mental Health Support Teams. The foundation also stressed the importance of ‘mental health aware’ managers in sectors that employ large numbers of young people such as the hospitality sector. 

In a panel discussion at the Foundation on Monday 26th February, there was significant agreement on the importance of understanding the complex nexus of reasons that lead to poor mental health in young people including adverse childhood experiences, poverty and inadequate welfare and housing provision. ‘We cannot look at this through an individualised or medical lens alone. It is a cultural and social problem’, shared Dr Annie Irvine from the University of York. For many churches who have been running Warm Welcome Spaces, social prescribing support, debt centres or a myriad of other offers, the breadth and depth of the problem of poor mental health is clear. 

When it comes to addressing this problem in a strategic way, the panel stressed that different areas needed a different approach but that for all children and young people, having access to basic family support services is vital along with ‘a home, a job and a friend’ (in reference to the Health Foundation’s Young People’s Future Health Inquiry). 

While the need is great, and the problem complex, this is an encouragement to us as churches. Church engagement in Family Hubs has a huge impact on preventing poor mental health in young people. Not only this, but by offering a place to be heard, to belong, to be loved, to be encouraged, church communities can play a significant role in increasing the resilience of our young people. 

If we ever needed encouragement to run a youth club, a Kick Academy, Make Lunch, Kintsugi Hope groups or receive training in supporting bereaved children, this is it. As Church we can offer young people space to belong, an offer that is part of our identity and that is evidenced to be what our young people need right now. 

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