Children’s Mental Health: Infographic

Children’s Mental Health Infographic

Anyone who works with young people in the UK today will recognise the challenges faced supporting our students in terms of mental health and wellbeing. There are a myriad of challenges that face them growing up with the impact of Lockdowns and cost of living. Schools are often the front line, the first responders for our most vulnerable children.

Often school is the  only safe space that some our young people have. Often their teacher the only adult that will listen.

There have recently been a number of articles published based on the Five Year Forward report that was released earlier this year.

Teachers or Mental Health Specialists?

The picture painted of the mental health care available to young people with SEN is not good. I have summarized some of the numbers in the infographic below. What we need is for these recommendations to be implemented and make an impact.

Not one teacher I know begrudges putting in the time to support our students, to ensure they do their best to help them.

But, we are not trained mental health specialists. We are well-meaning people that can guide, and be a shoulder to cry on. We can be a reliable, trusted person to unload onto. But we can rarely provide the solutions. We can often identify those at risk, or those that display signs of illness or trauma (there is a difference, read Emma’s post about this situation here)  but then we need support ourselves to make sure we are doing the right thing.