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Understanding Children and Young People’s Mental Health

On the positive side though, some young people feel that:

• It is helpful to know more about what they are experiencing and have
a name for it

• Diagnosis means they can learn more about the condition by doing their
own research

• ‘It is good to know I am not imagining it’.

Teenagers and adolescents may face multiple barriers, however, in terms of social and
personal attitudes that may prevent them from seeking help when they most need
it. Despite this age group being most at risk of developing mental ill health, they are
also at their most sensitive to the issues and possible stigma surrounding them and
therefore are the least likely to seek medical interventions and diagnosis.
Stigma and discrimination associated with mental ill health can make the difficulties
worse and can arise in all aspects of a person’s life. Families, friends, employers and
society in general can all be responsible for discriminating behaviours and comments
and this can make their difficulties worse, and make it harder for the person to recover.

Key Fact

Three quarters of young people (77%) with mental health problems
have missed out on education.

Source: Time to Change Survey 2014 of 3,051 people between
23/07/14-20/08/14

The Time to Change survey also shows that for one in four students (24%) the reason
they did not go into school, college or university was because they were worried what
other people would say, and 15% of people experienced bullying as a result of mental
health problems.

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