{"id":7657,"date":"2018-10-10T09:42:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T09:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oakwoodtrainin.wpengine.com\/?p=7657"},"modified":"2023-12-06T13:46:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T13:46:36","slug":"mental-health-and-our-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/mental-health-and-our-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health And Our Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, something very close to my heart, literally. Children. Especially my children.<\/p>\n

As a dad, I\u2019m delighted to see that this year\u2019s World Mental Health Day is putting kids centre-stage. The awareness day is entitled: ‘Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World.’<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Like any parent, I have concerns about my children growing up in a world that looks so staggeringly different to the one I grew up in. Pretty sure it is the same world, but it often doesn\u2019t feel like it.<\/p>\n

My kids, for instance, are genuinely shocked that I didn\u2019t have a mobile phone or iPad when I was at school. Not that long ago, while driving through a local village, I had to explain what a phone box was! You get the picture.<\/p>\n

And no, I\u2019m not about to bang the \u2018Social Media is Bad\u2019 drum here. Social media can be, and often is, a force for good. It allows people whose voices are soft (or sometimes silenced) to speak clearly. And it provides others with a mechanism to come forward and seek help and support where they would not normally have done so. Okay, the incessant \u2018keeping up with the Jones’s\u2019 is a less virtuous dimension \u2013 and perhaps an issue for a future blog.<\/p>\n

My point is this: The world is changing but the role of parents isn\u2019t. Never has.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We still need to equip our children for the world they<\/em> face. And that\u2019s tricky because most of us didn\u2019t grow up in that world, so it\u2019s not really the world we know. Fortunately, good old-fashioned virtues like trust, honesty, integrity and being supportive still prevail in the modern digital world. Experience has taught us that.<\/p>\n

And experience is one area where parents continue to trump their kids. Investing in our relationships and building trust such that we become the instinctive go-to source of support seems like a good place to start.<\/p>\n

Shocking Statistics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, statistics around Young People’s mental health both globally and in the UK are shocking. There\u2019s a clear lack of funding and service availability. Birmingham University\u2019s Mental Health Policy Commission identifies the funding and staffing gaps in its recent report: Investing in a Resilient Generation.<\/a><\/p>\n

We know Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are massively underfunded. Despite promises from government, money has yet to find its way to the front line.<\/p>\n

In the UK, only around one in four children and young people who need help with their mental health actually get a service. By 2021, that will rise to one in three, according to the Commission\u2019s report. But that still leaves two-thirds of those needing support with no access to it, which is nothing short of tragic if you look at these figures:<\/p>\n