Children and young people’s mental health services

WHO advocates for a comprehensive response to the mental health needs of children and young people, with a focus on strengthening policies and legislation; promoting enabling environments (in homes, schools, communities, workplaces and digital spaces) and building preventive and care services. Furthermore, WHO is developing and testing scalable psychological interventions to address emotional disorders of adolescents, and guidance on mental health services for adolescents. Physical, emotional and social changes, including exposure to poverty, abuse, or violence, can make adolescents vulnerable to mental health problems. There are things everyone can do to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people at every age and you can visit  to find resources and practical advice. This week is Children’s Mental Health Week, led by Place2Be, and it’s a great reminder of just how important it is to support the emotional wellbeing of children and young people. Their core focus areas include neonatal and maternal support, mental health and wellbeing of children and young adults, and literature.

Online safety

• This downloadable PDF is a child friendly social story that explains what happens when going to the dentist.
• The imperative to address the mental health needs of young people has been recognised and significant reforms have commenced in some high-income countries to improve mental health service provision for this population (13, 14).
• Educational reforms in the UK and many other countries have led to increased grading and testing, which significantly contributes to student anxiety and stress (104).
• This suggests that both bullying and cyberbullying victimization are indicators of comorbid mental health problems (136).

The characteristics and findings of the studies are shown in Supplementary Table S1 (See Supplementary File). Out of 122 full-text https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/in-crisis/article/How-can-schools-provide-mental-health-services-17072714.php papers retrieved, 11 met the inclusion criteria, bringing the total number of included studies to 83. Searches were augmented by Google Scholar, reviewing the reference lists of relevant studies, and by seminal publications known to the authors. There were significant variations in the age-standardised incidence rate (ASIR) and trends among countries. The prevalence of depression among young adults in Australia has more than doubled over the past 14 years, according to data from the 2007 and 2020–21 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (21).

What to do if your child is struggling: Steps caregivers can take to help kids and teens with their mental health

If you experience mental illness or care for someone who does, it’s vital to know your rights. Find out what help and support is available for you or a loved one. With the right treatment and support people living with mental illness can recover.

Worry vs. Fear: How to Know What You’re Really Feeling

Presenting the findings, Masumi Ono, Chief of the Social Inclusion and Participation Branch of UN DESA, highlighted that inequalities in opportunities are closely linked to disparities in mental health and well-being; stigma and discrimination continue to limit access to care, education, and work; and preventive, community-based, and youth-responsive approaches are essential to closing mental health gaps. The World Youth Report adopts a youth-informed social determinants approach, examining how education, work, family dynamics, poverty, digital environments, societal attitudes, and climate change shape mental health outcomes. The launch took place amid growing global concern over young people’s mental health, as youth face intersecting challenges such as poverty and inequality, barriers to education and decent work, digital harms, conflict, social exclusion, and climate-related stress. Guidelines on promotive and preventative mental health interventions for adolescents It includes training manuals and materials to help scale up the number of schools promoting mental health. This Guide provides evidence-based clinical protocols for the assessment and management of a range of mental health conditions in non-specialized care settings.

School pressure, job insecurity, poverty, unsafe communities, online harassment, discrimination, and lack of support at home all take a toll. There are examples of projects offering this kind of joined-up help, often in partnerships between councils, charities and, sometimes, the NHS. He also says there needs to be non-clinical support for issues such as housing and employment as well as more personalised therapies. But some of these opportunities have been lost, he says, nodding to a withdrawal of funding in the past and the closure of some networks that can provide support to young people.

Surgo Health’s Youth Mental Health Tracker, published in December 2024 with responses from 4,500 youth, had four in five reporting being satisfied with life, happy, and feeling that what they do in life is meaningful. Suicidal ideation and severe anxiety seem to be declining. Recent data from a variety of sources, not just ours, suggest that young adults and adolescents are reporting a little bit less distress compared to previous years. Their most recent data show a two-year uptick in college students who are flourishing, for the first time since 2012.