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.

So what happens to the hoards of struggling families of children with SENs who are getting no provision let alone private,whose kids are battling huge waits for EHCPs, diagnosis and any provision at all.

Actually a 6 figure cheque would enable authorities to divert money to those.

HeBeaverandSheBeaver

Until you’re living with it people have no idea how bad things are. Schools know, Cahms do, hospitals do but everybody else turns a blind eye to it. It’s not click worthy, doesn’t raise profiles.

*Does the Countess of Wessex bring six figure cheques made out to the schools she visits?

If not, then what value does her visits bring?*

ITA with pp, there is nothing Kate can do, to get the government to substantially improve funding for schools, the NHS, Social Services, etc to make a difference to troubled 18 - 25 year olds. Imo, it would take a change of government, because the Tories at the top really do not care about ordinary people. Austerity is supposed to have cost 800,000 people their lives iirc?

OP would do better to find a relevant charity and support them to campaign for changes; and not vote Tory at the next election, rather than moaning about the PoW, who has no power over this!

What it does though is bury other sectors even more.

Desperate parents struggling to keep children alive and to get help are doing all that. It will not help this sector who are suffering now and frankly battling with Tory MPs in safe seats really isn’t what such parents should be having to do on top of everything else.

@Alice1land35543

Yep. If I knew ten years ago how hard having a teen was I'd seriously consider saving for private health care while they are little.

We are lucky we have been able to afford the £90 a session fee that has massively improved dds quality of life and she is now enjoying life and passed her exams tho is still a stroppy mare at times to me.

But if we couldn't find the money the gp told me it was a two year wait

If we had waited two years we wouldn't have got her through her exams and her MH would
Have been deteriorating

It's awful!!

So many of my peers also have teens with issues. School refusal. Phobias self harm one attempt at taking her life. It's just awful. There are literally no help.

Anyone with little ones reading this. If you can save some money now. My dd was a happy child. A little anxious but sociable good at school. Friends. No bullying, had pets loving grandparents and parents. We still had a huge issue once the teens hit.

They'd get even less provision if the children who were identified, assessed, diagnosed and supported earlier were also forced to wait until their teens.

It's actually interesting to look at the studies into this

acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.13505

One of the points is that girls tend to be diagnosed far later

'As more females, for example, are diagnosed, there are more women identified with autism who make a vocal contribution about how they missed out on diagnosis when younger, and more females with autism are talked about and seen, thereby reinforcing narratives about female autism'

Which would imply that greater focus needs to be placed upon identification, assessment and support in Early Years/Primary so that these girls aren't left unsupported when the teenage years prove to be unsustainable for them. In reference to Eating Disorders, Autism can also be connected - possibly in some cases because the patient has not been diagnosed with Autism early enough and the behaviours are a maladaptive response to the lack of identification and support.

So what happens to the hoards of struggling families of children with SENs who are getting no provision let alone private,whose kids are battling huge waits for EHCPs, diagnosis and any provision at all.

I can’t answer that, although I did what I could - I worked as a volunteer for two charities, which supported parents of children with SEN, to get what they were legally entitled to. I acted as an independent parent supporter; sat on a working party with my local authority; worked with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and demonstrated outside parliament. I went to the SEN tribunal 4 times over DD1 to get her provision - local authorities usually have to be dragged there, kicking and screaming to place children in the non maintained specialist schools.

The reasons girls get diagnosed later is because they mask, their autism can present differently and diagnostics are geared towards boys.Giving early years more funding won’t change that. Girls with autism need the support in the teenage years when the wheels fall off often catastrophically.

Having got such a child I can tell you extra early years funding would have made very little difference. It would however make a massive amount of difference now to the extent it could save her life

More funding so they can better identify and support the typically divergent presentation of girls sooner - before 'the wheels fall off' - and lessen the strain and impact of masking for so many years - wouldn't help?

The windsors have always made speech's about topics they haven't studied. Don't let her opinion get to you OP.

My dd was a happy child. A little anxious but sociable good at school. Friends. No bullying, had pets loving grandparents and parents. We still had a huge issue once the teens hit

So what went wrong? And what happened at these £90 a go sessions?

I dont believe early years is the best place for that. Certainly wouldn’t have been with my daughter.. There is also only so much cash. It’s needed far more in teenage years, they are far harder to navigate with far more pressures. It’s nuts they get so little attention or funding.

@MarieTharp

I'm not going to discuss my dds personal info here

I find your tone patronising. And derogatory

I find your tone patronising. And derogatory

Don't be rude. You're the one who's brought your DD into this.

Actually OP, I’ve just been reading this thread:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4685680-staffing-crisis-in-schools-teachersschool-staff-whats-your-school-like

Posters on there are complaining about how services for under fives, like speech therapy have disappeared (except for private); and some parents don’t know these services even existed, because there is no sign posting even to them. There are also quite a few posts by staff in primary schools about how dire, staffing (like TAs) is!

Nobody seems happy about what is happening to young children with SEND in particular either? I am not surprised, because the SEN system has been underfunded for decades; and it’s just got worse and worse!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63784751

meh. Maybe she'll be like all other parents i know who have younger children than me and finally understand what I've been talking about when their own precious little poppets turn into teenagers?

Agree there need to be more resources across the board. I also agree that there needs to be a lot more, much much more, support for teenagers and young adults

i also do think that if the UK wanted to put money into EY programmes they shouldn't have closed so many Sure Start centres which were apparently making great strides.

So, yaay, let's reinvent the wheel?

Don't worry Op, I'm sure when kate's kids are teenagers she'll start banging on about the critical importance of the teenage years.

She can do both early years and teens.

Young adults in their 20s aren't teenagers. In my early twenties I was a qualified professional working overseas.

This has touched you personally so it's clearly an issue that is close to your heart. I agree that many posters seem to think mh issues in teens and adults only stem from those children with chaotic homes. That is of course very simplistic and untrue. Many will be as a result of this but we have had a pandemic which has affected the lives of young people, distrupetd their education and left many with anxiety. They absolutely do need support and it's very hard when you are getting passed from pillar to post and your child is missing education and job opportunities to carve out an independent life or is at the worse end of the scale and has siffered from self harm or threatened or tried to commit suicide.

I agree with another poster that lobbying your mp and maybe contacting the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh might be worth a try to see how their work with young teens and adults can help. I wouldn't target my disdain at the Princess of Wales who wants to start at a younger age group. There is research to show help in the early years is beneficial and she is going where the research is.

I also understand that this isn't going to help you and families like yourself in this very moment and that is incredibly hurtful.

Teens are facing huge pressures( more than ever before) and mental health struggles are soaring

more than ever before are you serious?!!!
You know teenagers are a modern concept? It used to be straight from school into work (or war). This age group (now extended to 25 for god sake!) is more pampered and spoilt than it’s ever been and it’s not been good for them. They’re not under more pressure than ever before for god sake, they’re not expected to go off fighting wars or working in dangerous factories, please get some perspective.

But They are told if they don't do well at GCSEs/A level / University their life won't amount to anything. In 'the old days' yes you left school at 15/16 to enter work, but you could do that. Dad would find you a job at his factory or whatever.

At school there are no longer good options for less academic kids, they've all but been removed. e.g. You can't do a cooking BTEC, it has to be a Food Tech GCSE with a mound of theory to learn.