Public health charity uses damning report to call for minimum recruitment age to be raised to 18
Amelia Hill @byameliahill Wayne Sharrocks as an 18-year-old serving in Afghanistan. He joined the army on his 17th birthday. Photograph: Sharrocks family Recruiting children aged 16 and 17 into the British army places them at greater risk of death, injury and long-term mental health problems than those recruited as adults, according to a […]
Austerity and a malign benefits regime are profoundly damaging mental health
442 psychotherapists, counsellors and academics condemn government plans and call on Labour and other parties to denounce anti-therapeutic practices
The lack of acute beds available to mental health patients has left the system at breaking point, the Royal College of Psychiatrists has said.
Illustrating the scale of the problem, the college said it understood that on one occasion last year there were no beds available for adults in England. It called for action to tackle the problem.
The college president, Simon Wessely, said: “There is mounting evidence – such as the doubling of the number of patients having to be sent out-of-area for care between 2011/12-2013/14 – that there are simply not enough mental health beds available in some areas.
Lindsey Cree’s son was diagnosed with schizophrenia, she turned to Rethink, a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the burden of mental illness
Who do you talk to you when your 10-year-old son tells you, racked with fear, that cameras have been installed in the school playground to spy on him? Or when, a couple of years later, he decides he is no longer able to drink anything because the water in the taps has been poisoned? How do you respond when he tells you he is worried that people are injecting toxins into the veins of his hands at night?
Just being more open to the topic of mental health can make a significant impact on young people.
The number of young people experiencing anxiety and depression has increased by 70% in the past 25 years. It is estimated that 45,000 people under the age of 16 experience a mental health problem. And given that over half of adults with a mental illness are diagnosed before the age of 15, teachers can play a vital role in de-stigmatising mental health for young people.
One young person and a teacher explain their relationship with mental illness, and discuss what schools can do to help.
