To think the Princess of Wales is wrong and the years that need more support and funding are the teenage years with the 18-25 year group being the most needy.

[Alice1land35543]

Having access to private mental health support , education and all that being rich entails alongside having not experienced the teenage years I don’t think the P of W is fully informed or right.

Teens are facing huge pressures( more than ever before) and mental health struggles are soaring. Services are beyond stretched and what little there is is broken and unable to cope. Schools are struggling, paediatric wards bursting, families are on their knees and continuously battling. When unwell teens reach 18 there is nothing but a cliff edge into zero support and they are abandoned. The brain doesn’t finish developing until 25.

“If we are going to tackle the sorts of complex challenges we face today like homelessness, violence and addiction, which are so often underpinned by poverty and poor mental health, we have to fully appreciate those most preventative years and do everything we can to nurture our children and those who care for them”.

No Kate we need to focus on the years children are struggling the most, fund mental health treatment and support properly and ensure that provision for 18-25 year olds is mandatory in every trust. Early years get plenty already. Teens and parents of teens get next to nothing so why the focus on early years yet again? Maybe the teenage years and 18/25 group aren’t so media appealing.

As an aside rich celebrities jumping on the mental health bandwagon saying let’s talk about mental health and just reach out is not the answer. Those struggling with mental health can’t reach out because there is nothing to reach out to and it’s not that simplistic. That however is a whole other thread.

I think she is right to buikd the foundations first.
But i dont think every problem is preventable by good early years, as puberty is another time of rapid change and there does seem to be a cliff edge at 18

Can you link to the statement you are referring to, please?

I think there are different needs in 'the early years' and in young people of secondary school age. It shouldn't have to be an 'either / or' situation.

Working in primary education, I can assure you that every penny that goes on supporting EYFS and early primary education is needed and does potentially change lives.

As a parent of a teen who struggles with their MH, I think a teenage mental health champion is definitely a good idea; a kind of Marcus Rashford of teen wellbeing, for all the reasons you list.

We need a radical overhaul of the education system to create broader options for inclusion and engagement which does not punish young people (and by extension, their families) for their struggles with their mental health, in which constructive in-school intervention is not only reserved for those who eventually crash and burn but is made available at a much earlier instance, before pupils become actively 'at odds' with education providers on account of unmet needs. Softer edges and a much wider path on which to access secondary education is needed in order to curtail marginalisation and avoid exacerbating poor mental health at this stage.

I’m staggered that there seems to be so little understanding re the causes and situation with mental health amongst teens. There is nothing that we could have been given in the early years that would have prevented the shit storm we and many other families like us are living though.

I can’t see anything wrong with that, she hasn’t said let’s redirect resources from 18-25 year olds and she doesn’t get a say in that anyway.

I saw a snippet about it in the Daily Mail but it wasn't a big feature & had 2 comments on it so clearly not given much press. The whole point is headlines surely.

Foundations upwards mean that parenting is improved. Improved parenting leads to less of the sorts of things you describe in the 18-25 age group. Much links back to early years.

Also she has a particular interest in early years. Its not mutually exclusive and of course reens need help too. Getting them off of social media would be a massive help in my opinion (mum of teens).

I think early years are very important. It’s when a lot of socialisation happens and attachments etc which will hopefully produce a better teen.
teen years also important as they can go off rails then even with good parenting prior .
PoW doesn’t have teens yet so has less experience so it makes sense for her to concentrate on younger years.
there is the DoE for teens and maybe when she has teens herself her focus might change as happens to all of us.

She will have advisors, I have a young adult with a lot of mental health issues and partly they stem from inadequate support as a child, with us seeking help and being offered just cbt each time- subsequently we have been told it's not something that works for people like my dd, she needs dbt

SEN provision and autism diagnostics/support are other areas that are massively on their knees and would help better outcomes with increased provision, focus and funding.But I guess they don’t look so pretty in photo ops either.

This is a wealthy white woman who shook hands with poor little black kids through an iron fence for God's sake. She hasn't got a clue

Cheap shot, bringing colour into this discussion and an event - the children turning up - that was spontaneous.

Kate is an educated woman, she's spent years reading the research, meeting with experts and advocating for Early Years.

There’s not a lack of understanding about the causes of poor mental health in teens. I’m sorry that you and your family are personally affected by what is a major major issue in this country. But I do disagree with you. Yes,
mental health issues in teens can be caused by a large variety of things, but treating the outcome not the causes will not do anything to stop the numbers rising. A significant proportion of teens with poor mental health are as a direct result of poor early year stability. Not all, of course. But a significant number. Focusing on those causes will lead to a reduction of teens presenting with these issues. That then frees up more resources for teens who do still present with mental health issues.

I find her a bit frustrating on this subject. There doesn't seem to be any substance on what actually needs to be done, other than the early years are important. I suppose asking for more funding might be seen as political.

Also, a lot of the issues are down to poor parenting, frankly. Primary schools reporting kids in nursery and reception not knowing their own name. But she can hardly say that, can she?

Kate is an educated woman, she's spent years reading the research, meeting with experts and advocating for Early Years.

Not disputing she is educated but do you think you can get something fully if you have never lived it though? I don't.

I find her a bit frustrating on this subject. There doesn't seem to be any substance on what actually needs to be done, other than the early years are important. I suppose asking for more funding might be seen as political.

The Royals all have to have "projects" but I guess the only real power they have is getting press & raising awareness.

@yoyy so only people who experienced, say, disadvantaged early years, can have any meaningful impact in facilitating positive change? How would that work then?

Having 3 young children in her situation might count as living through it. I think she is probably well aware of the importance of supporting young children in this way.

Also, mental health issues don't only affect those living in poverty........

Ridiculous statement.

Are you saying all the experts/drs/professors have suffered from a condition? No of course they haven't.

They are experts in their field and are better qualified as they are more likely to be objective and can see the issues more clearly, rather than be clouded by emotion. It doesn't mean they don't understand what people are going through.

It's not either/or. I doubt anyone would endorse taking scarce resources from teen/ young adult mental health in order to do the preventative work.
However, I agree that mental health provision for people in this age group (and other age groups) is devastatingly, shockingly poor.
I hate it when organisations, celebrities, whoever, talk about the importance of 'conversations' about mental health -- reaching out etc. As if cost-free virtue-signalling was actually contributing something to resolving this terrible, inhumane crisis.
Mental health services are, in a lot of cases, just not there in practice. And the more they are not there, the more the NHS seems to try to obscure their absence by putting in place new campaigns, initiatives, entities, programmes to allegedly deliver care that isn't funded or actually provided. It would be better if they just said fuck off we can't help. Rather than stringing people along with bureaucratic pretences.

I work in a youth service preventative mental health setting with teens and YP in early adulthood and I agree they need much more support. But we need both not either or.

She is right. By the time kids start school there is a huge educational gulf that never gets bridged. If we could tackle that there there might not be such a problem when those kids turn 18.

Of course you can be an expert in things you haven't experienced in your personal life.

Not that I think Kate is an expert in child development. She's educated, but not in this field.

I don't think she's wrong that early years are key though.

For some it can though. It's not a cure-all but serving 0-5 well creates a healthier cohort, and makes it easier to pick up on needs like being neurodiverse sooner rather than ending up with a teenager in crisis on the back of a couple of years waiting list.

It's not an excuse to do nothing for teenagers/ young adults.

Logistically they can also be a harder age group to work with because you need their consent and many struggle to give it when they are in difficulty.

Teenage health needs working at from a few angles including prevention by school budgets for pastoral support, a better curriculum to suit all learning needs (and tbh the world of employment would benefit greatly) and access to casual sporting activity as well as the actual response for those in difficulty. Patrons/ activists from sport/ music would reach this age group directly better than royalty anyway.

I had access to children's centres when DS1 was an infant. It was useful in knowing that I was doing good things with him, and when I later came to do a referral for what turned out to be ASD, there were relevant comments that the staff had observed about his attention span that I could include that gave evidence that his traits had been life-long. He can now get appropriate support that will help to prevent a crisis in the teenage years and direct that support more appropriately.

Not all difficulties can be headed off in this way, and for those in that position it's better if there is less pressure in the system from those that were supported earlier. Both age groups are important.

She chose the early years as that’s her area of interest. Of course the teen years are also important but that’s a whole different area of expertise. Maybe as her children become older she may gravitate towards highlighting teen mental health etc. Someone like Harry could’ve done great work in this area I think but obviously not now.

@Basilthymerosemary tbh I wasn't thinking of medicine but more of things like experiencing poverty, racism, etc & where did I say that experts don't understand? I said fully understand.

Having said that I do think many medical experts don't fully understand things they haven't experienced eg childbirth, female hormones, menopause, the impact mentally of dealing with chronic conditions.

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