Make no mistake, the mental health of our young people is an issue that has become just as important as their numeracy or literacy skills, their examination results and their preparedness for the working world.
As Professor Tanya Byron told the SSAT national conference last month, one in 10 young people aged five to 16 has a diagnosable mental health disorder and 50 per cent of adult mental health problems present by the age of 14.
Furthermore, the latest ChildLine figures show that four of the top 10 issues about which teenagers contacted the charity were linked to mental health – low self-esteem/unhappiness, self-harm, suicidal feelings, and mental health/depressive disorders. The rise in incidence of self-harm has been well-documented during the past year and the above issues accounted for one-third of all contacts to ChildLine in 2014/15.
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