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.

She’s right. We need to take preventative action in the early years so problems don’t then arise/ get worse etc later down the line.

Yes by all means provide much more mental health support for teens and young adults, but we need to focus more on the very early years, and indeed all of primary.

My husband is a mental health nurse and the majority of his patients have some sort of childhood trauma, getting those traumas dealt with as early as possible will give those children much better long term health benefits. Unfortunately by the teen years the damage is too ingrained. Teen mental health services do need more funding, but I believe the earlier the intervention the better

No we need to focus more on the teeny Yeats as that is where the need is greatest at the moment. Constantly focusing on a group that is already supported whilst problems with another group gets bigger is ridiculous.

There are zero resources and support for any family with teens let alone those with teens who are struggling.

There isn’t an unlimited amount of cash.

And there is also a knock down impact of not dealing with those most in need.

This, by Olly: Of course the very serious mental illnesses young people we see have are not caused by a lack of children's centres. Most have autism and learning disabilities, have experienced bullying, developed additional serious mental distress after disruption at school or at home. And are much more vulnerable to mental illness anyway. The suicide rate in this population is worryingly high.

It isn't either / or, but to suggest that, if only more support was given in the EY, the teen and young adult MH crisis could be prevented, is disingenuous and has a whiff of both smuggery and parent blaming about it. My DC1, mild learning disability and awaiting ASC assessment, but essentially OK in primary school, experienced pernicious bullying (by supposedly well adjusted and well rounded peers from secure and loving homes) at secondary school and is now in an at risk MH category.

You are clearly in a lot of pain and I am really sorry you and and your family are struggling. The truth is we need both types of interventions.

All the research shows that early years have huge impacts on life chances, including mental ill health, and it is underfunded. It’s also unfair to mock softer interventions as research shows how the development of community and development of parents as primary carers reduces the incidence of the kinds of trauma and neglect which really affect children. But all thats not to say that’s not true of support for teens.

I hope you get the support you need.

A significant proportion of teens with poor mental health are as a direct result of poor early year stability

Figures please. Literally every, single, one, of DD's cohort of friends has diagnosed mental health problems. Most are from wealthy, healthy, stable, loving families.

Kalasbyxor
yes I’m seeing the smuggary and parent blaming.

It’s scary as I’m seeing family after families whose kids had every chance and the best early years with seriously struggling teens. It’s widespread and deeply worrying.

I fear the parent blaming and focusing on early years is making things worse. Funds are diverted in the wrong way and causes of the epidemic aren’t being properly looked at or dealt with.

Current teens had Surestart, children’s centres etc

KnittedCardi

This is what we’re seeing. It’s terrifying.

@Kalasbyxor I am really sorry to hear about your son. I wasn't sure if you read my post as parent blaming. I meant exactly the opposite. It's not either/or. Clearly EY provision wouldn't (and indeed didn't) prevent what has happened to your DS. But at a population level our goal should be to ensure all young people are a bit less miserable and EY can be part of that. Either way in a world where autistic children in particular are being relentlessly bullied, left undiagnosed, given no appropriate support in school or employment or access to health services and we don't have anywhere near enough health services anyway parent blaming isn't necessary.

I think that both need targeting. Teens are so overlooked in so many ways and what they had to undergo during the pandemic, having so many doors shut in their face at a time when they should have been out there exploring, was very damaging. And they have just been expected to get on with it since with paltry support.

Teens go through a period of brain plasticity, just like toddlers, and that is when a lot of mh issues can become apparent. Even without that, i can be a very challenging time. And there is so little support and advice for parents of teens out there! So I agree with you o for highlighting the issue but I think but both early and teenage years are vital stages developmentally.

OP clearly you have a reason to be upset and angry about what’s happening to your family; and you’re clearly taking it personally when people are talking about how early years intervention can often mitigate later teen issues - this isn’t saying anything about your specific circumstance or accusing anyone of parenting failures; in fact most people are pointing out that parents often desperately try and seek support for their children to no result.

I think you’d get much more support here if you hadn’t phrased it as one vs the other; and dismissing the challenges that parents of early years children face.

it shouldn’t be one vs the other. You shouldn’t be saying funding should be diverted from EY to support teens.

There are far more egregious examples of misuse of public funding, even NHS funding, that it’s odd you’re focusing on EY.

Others respectfully disagree with you.

it’s been acknowledged for hundreds of years that early development and support is crucial.
“give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man”

Clearly your children are in a very difficult place, but your experience does not mean early years development is less important and that parents need help to be able to give their children the best start in life.

Rashford, as an athlete, has achieved huge success after a relatively impoverished upbringing. The Royal Family are constantly followed by the media and had a privileged upbringing. Surely modern royalty should be aiming to narrow this gap by getting acquainted with real world issues, or would you prefer it if the future Queen stayed in her lane and just cut ribbons and smiled?

She's very limited in what she can actually do, but if she ignored the pressing problems of vast numbers of citizens, she'd be heavily criticised for that too.

Exactly.

My son has develpmental trauma due to the first year of his life. He was a suicidal and violent child up until recently at 11. He is at a higher risk for suicide and incarceration than most. I LOVE that she is focusing on the early years. Science supports her.

But those battling mental health often have a huge amount of resilience. Getting out of bed and dealing with mental health on a daily basis takes buckets of it.

What about the many teens suffering from trauma and pressure inflicted during the teenage years?

I see where you’re coming from OP. It’s not going to do the kids targeted in their early years to find that support drops off a cliff edge when they become a teenager and no longer worthy of interest. Clearly it’s not either/or but seeing resources all go to EY because that’s how to prevent trauma - however true - makes it feel as though this generation of teens are beyond help and can be written off.

I was a seriously damaged teenager in the early 2000s and there was no provision whatsoever - everything was targeted at the under 8s. Not much has changed.

Literally every, single, one, of DD's cohort of friends has diagnosed mental health problems. Most are from wealthy, healthy, stable, loving families.

So why is this happening if it is not rooted in early childhood? Covid? Social media? How come it has got this bad??

I think a lot is caused by phones and social media. Also lack of treatment in the later years when problems start and lack of support or advice for parents parenting teens.

Constantly focusing on a group that is already supported whilst problems with another group gets bigger is ridiculous.

This is a genuine question not me being snarky, but when you say early years are "already supported", what support do you mean?

Lockdown, global warming worry….

Nonsense. Early years is the foundation upon which everything else is built.

Teenagers desperately need help with their mental health, but they don’t need eg counsellors and posh wellbeing lectures etc they need the secondary school system to be overhauled and happier teachers with less paperwork and also so that bullying incompetent teachers can be swiftly removed. They also need the government to legislate to get social media companies to enforce age limits. Why are ten year olds on wattsapp when the age limit is 16? Etc. Etc.