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Understanding Children and Young People’s Mental Health
When a young child experiences abuse or neglect, for example, and ends up in care,
their future can be profoundly affected unless they are given stability, safety and the
right therapeutic support early on to help them recover from this trauma.
The Future in Mind report tells us that:
‘The Children and Young People’s Taskforce members heard, during their
consultations with a wide range of people, of cases where, if vulnerable young
people had been able to access specialist advice and support more rapidly, it
would have resulted not only in earlier and better outcomes, but also a
significant saving to the public purse.’
There is a strong case to be made in economic terms about providing this help early
on. Failure to support children and young people with their mental health needs
means that they are more likely to fall into a crisis later in life. The interventions
at this point will be more costly and last longer.
Read about Megan’s struggle to obtain a diagnosis for her bipolar disorder on the next
page and you will begin to see the value of obtaining a diagnosis as early as possible.
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