Children and young people's mental health and emotional wellbeing (health and wellbeing needs in South Tyneside)
Key issues
- Measuring the actual levels of MHEW need in children and young people is very difficult to do in practice and risks drawing attention to complex (and diagnosed) needs, and thus missing undiagnosed/ unidentified needs and diminishing the role of prevention. In addition to this, when children and young people are supported by mental health services there is very little information on associated needs, such as being looked after, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, having a chronic health condition, or being in contact with youth justice services,
- Work conducted by the Young Person's Parliament clearly highlights that young people in South Tyneside recognise the importance of mental health and want it to be considered as a priority,
- Children and young people feel very distant from, and therefore do not always access, the services that are available to them locally. Issues cited including a lack of confidence in the level of confidentiality of services,
- Children and families do not understand what services are available to them locally and how these services work together,
- The continuity of care for children and their families between mental health services has been identified as an area that needs improvement,
- Children and young people have identified that there is a clear gap in help and support for "low-level" mental health and wellbeing support at times of stress and anxiety - such as during family difficulties or exams. This includes a lack of awareness in children, parents / carers, and professionals around understanding MHEW issues, and ways of offering simple support or promoting self-care,
- Self-harm is cited by professionals and young people as an issue in South Tyneside. The statistical data available do potentially support this finding. However, further anecdotal reports from teaching staff, school nurses, educational psychologists and young people themselves point towards more of a hidden harm issue in South Tyneside,
- Locally the attention of statutory organisations is on the provision and quality of more specialist services, rather than clear programmes to improve prevention and early help, and therefore resources are disproportionately weighted towards treatment,
- Need to improve the use of champions for positive MHEW in children and young people, which are currently identified in every school. Young people cited a number of good example of help and support in the schools setting, but they also cited where support is lacking,
- This needs assessment has a number of limitations that should be address over time by the Children and Young People's MHEW Strategy Group. These include:
- A lack of views by clinical professionals and parents/ carers on the needs of children and young people, and the local provision of services. Some excellent work has been conducted with schools, but we must expand the conversation to other professional groups and families,
- A lack of specific quantitative data on the level of self-harm that doesn't result in a hospital admission in children and young people. A further survey of schools pastoral leads and/ or children, young people and / or families would be beneficial in understanding the scale of the local issue.
- Clarity on meaning and interpretation of performance data from tier 2 and 3 child and adolescent mental health services in South Tyneside
