“She just going through a phase”
“Here he goes attention seeking again”
“She’s such a drama queen”
Unfortunately, these phrases are commonly used especially by adults and young persons in a way to describe someone suffering with a mental health condition. In my opinion, all I can describe these types off comments as is arrogant and unknowledgeable.
Welcome to the latest #LetsTalk column with myself Grace J Teal this week discussing mental health and support available for children and young persons.
The older generation’s view on depression within children tends to be “he/she has nothing to be depressed about” but again this shows a lack of education and knowledge amongst our families, friends and communities.
1 in 10 child/young person suffers with mental health, whether this be anxiety, depression or maybe even an eating disorder it is more common than we know.
Within today’s society of constant pressure from social media, it’s hard to escape and turn off from the online world, due to this we have heartbreakingly seen a rise in a number of cases where children and young teenagers have attempted and taken their lives because of bullying and not being able to handle the constant pressure and life intrusive side of social media, it’s like there is no escape or a turn off button.
This is a true and upsetting fact and it’s for these reasons it’s important we educate our children and make them aware of what help and advice is available today to support them with mental health and bullying online.
In England, the NHS provides a service called CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) This service is set up specifically help and support children and young people up to the age of 18 and their families.
CAMHS intervenes,helps and supports children’s and families experiencing mental health or emotional issues, they work alongside general practitioners and have a multi agency approach so the best support is given.
Contact details for CAMHS can be found on the NHS website or speak to your doctor and they can certainly do a referral.
In north Lincolnshire, we also now have a Mental Health Champion in every school, this person is fully qualified in speaking to the children about any type of mental health or emotional issue and they also work alongside CAMHS.
There is also the School nurse who is there to offer support advice and do referrals and also the young persons counselling service.
There is a lot of help and support out there that we do not know about so it’s important we become aware of these peoples and teams that will help our children today.
Not every child will open up to their parents, friends and families so please I can’t stress enough let’s Make sure they do know other people they can turn to, no one wants to go through mental heath by themselves.