According to a study by the World Health Organisation (2023), 20% of young people may experience a mental health problem in any given year. What is being done to support these young people?
The story of Hart Voluntary Action’s 121 Youth Counselling
In 2014, secondary schools in Hart District approached Hart Voluntary Action asking what support was available for young people with regards to their mental health. At this time, there was no voluntary service in Hart District offering counselling for young people, who did not meet the threshold for NHS intervention. Hart Voluntary Action stepped in, and after much research and hard work, started offering youth counselling to young people aged 11+ living in the district. The service was launched with the strapline ‘Don’t Shout, Talk it Out’ to encourage young people to access the service. Over the years this service has grown from having 22 young people being referred to service in 2014 to us now receiving over 130 referrals in a year. After our recent rebrand this strapline is now simply ‘Time to Talk’.
What are young people struggling with?
A common reason that young people are referred to us is anxiety and this has not changed over the years – anxiety remains as one of the most common concerns among young people. However, there have been changes to presenting issues over time. We now see far more young people wanting to talk about their sexuality or their gender identity.
We are also seeing a much higher proportion of self-harm and suicidal ideation. It is unclear whether this increase in cases of self-harm and suicidal ideation is due to an actual increase or whether in past years it has been ‘hidden’. Although, in 2023 the BBC reported that admissions to hospital due to self-harm had risen by 22% in a year indicating that the issue is becoming more prevalent.
In 2014/15 we provided 306 counselling sessions ……………
Fast forward to 2023/24, we provided 1500 counselling sessions to young people
Although we are able to reach a large number of young people in our local area, there is still a lot of work to do to reach the 20% of young people in our community each year who may need early help with their mental health.
Children’s Mental Health Week is led by the national children’s mental health charity Place2Be. The theme for 2025 is “Know Yourself Grow Yourself”. You can find out more on their resources pages here. The BBC also has a page of teaching resources aimed at children and young people.