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.

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

I asked if you could fully get something if you haven't lived it.

Surestart centres were introduced by the Labour government in 1999 to tackle exactly these issues. One in three were closed by 2020 due to cuts Government funding. I would like to see concrete evidence of what the Early Years Foundation has actually achieved - personally I think she needed a cause to be aligned to and so chose this. I'm very cynical about this, but would be very happy to be proved wrong in due course.

And I guess what are we defining as experts? The gov appoints lots of experts that wouldn't necessarily view as having expertise. 😄

@DaphneduM The Surestart centres were a good initiative

@Teadrinkingmumofone has Kate facilitated positive change?

OP, I really hear you. So many of the families I have come across on our journey of supporting a teen with poor mental health report the same story; their children's struggles have little to do with support available in the early years, they have had a very stable, loving start and often appeared to be just fine in primary school. The secondary school system presents a unique set of challenges at a time which, developmentally, is tricky to navigate. At a time when young people need to be 'seen' more, and their wellbeing more closely monitored, they are put into education settings which render them all but invisible among their peers; secondary schools around here all cater to 1100-1400 pupils. I often wonder what secondary education would look like, from a MH and wellbeing perspective, if we preserved the 'smaller' settings reminiscent of primary schools, and allowed young people to be educated on a smaller scale basis in settings with annual intakes of 60 or 90 in Y7. Of course, funding yada yada, but it bears thinking about.

Both are equally important both she has a chosen to focus on the early years.
ACES have a huge impact on outcomes later in life so if we get it right in the beginning we should get better experiences later in life.

Early Years is the Princess of Wales’s focus and has been for some time.
As mothers we tend to focus on the needs of the age group of our own children at the time.
Funds …more funds…..are needed to research and support the needs of all age ranges from maternity to the elderly. Well done to the POW for her work with the early years sector. I feel nobody should be knocking it.

YABU there is a huge amount of evident that getting the early years right is incredibly important. Of course that doesn't mean we shouldn't be support children of other ages too. It's not an either or.

You sound very frustrated OP and it sounds like you are going through a tough time, but focussing your anger on the Princess isn't helping. I'd be more angry with our current government and all the y have done to strip our public services

Resources are tight. You can’t fund everything at the moment . Support for teens in the areas listed is broken and on its knees. What little there is needs to be directed there.

Those teens waiting sitting on waiting lists getting nothing are going to be hoovering up more taxes now, next month, next year and so on. It is banking up and the bill is going to keep spiralling.

The reason your early years child can’t get a bed on paediatrics is because they are full of struggling teens with nurses having to fulfil roles they’re not meant to. Teachers are struggling to teach because they’re having to fulfil roles they’re not supposed to. GPs and surgeries are having to fulfil roles they’re not supposed to. A&E are being inundated. Teen mental health conditions are being made worse by the broken system which is putting even more strain on everything and reducing taxes contributed from young people left to plummet and out of work….

Focusing on play opportunities, coffee mornings or whatever Kate has in mind for a group that already has provision is not appropriate at this time.

Name me one meaningful piece of support teens or parents of any teens have. Then list the provision for struggling families of teens sitting on Cahms and adult services waiting lists.

I suppose I'm looking at people like Marcus Rashford who fully gets it which made his campaign even more powerful & one reason why I think it had such a massive impact. And of course at the time there were lots of "experts" in government who thought it was ok to stop covid food fund.

Why criticise her well-considered work? Fine to suggest she focuses on both. But as others have said, prevention is better than cure.

You seem to have a bee up your arse regarding Kate, really odd!

I totally agree that teen mental health is criminally underfunded, leaving many without help or hope.

But I don't see the link to the PoW's work? Why her and not, Camilla and her interest in women's domestic violence, for example. Or Charles and his interest in providing skills and apprentiships for young people? Or William and his work with wildlife and planet charities?

The royals always pick charities that speak most to them - in reality most of us do that when we make charity donations etc. I'm not clear why the PoW has been called out specifically.

And whilst you’re doing that think of the pressures teens, parents of teens and professionals are under at this current time, in this current world and society.

Parents of under 5s do not have the same pressures.

Increasing Life chances begin early. Read martin Lewis s posts about supporting the early years. It’s a no brainer. And yes teens also need help now. But we the tax payer don’t pay for it. Want a welfare state but not prepared to pay….

She's not talking about coffee mornings, FFS. The seeds of the poor mental health in the teenagers you're talking about in all likelihood were sown in their very early childhoods. They need the help now because of their experiences then. That's what she wants to highlight.

ClaphamSouth

Thats bullshit.

It’s current day pressures and society that is causing the epidemic alongside zero support for parents or teens having to navigate these tricky years.

Threads like this fascinate me...do some people really believe that KM is any kind of 'true' passionate advocate for early years?

KM will turn up where she's told, smile and nod and display her greatest listening face, then read the lines someone else wrote for her. Her special focus/link to early years was probably decided because babies make for cuter pictures.

It blows my mind how many people get sucked in by this kind of crap.

@FancyANewID the power of propaganda!

YABU.

Clearly you are struggling and I agree with you that teen mental health support is desperately needed.

But that does not mean you get to shit all over parents of younger children or dismiss vital early years care as “play and coffee mornings” ffs.

The fact that teenagers now need extra funding does not make the fact that better understanding of early child development improves lifelong outcomes 'bullshit'

Or someone realising everything they do is subject to scrutiny so trying to focus that scrutiny on an important issue.

@Jaffacakeorisitabiscuit has that focus lead to any change then?