The Mental Health Question
The new quarterly report from Get Connected, the UK’s confidential youth helpline service, reveals that more young people than ever are suffering from psychological issues. Mental health and emotional problems now make up a significant percentage of contacts to the helpline, but Get Connected poses the question, is this the real picture? http://www.getconnected.org/
Get Connected
Get Connected is the free, confidential helpline service for children and young people under 25 in the UK, who need help for any problem. Get Connected’s latest Quarter 3 Report has identified a very worrying trend, clearly showing that young people are dealing with psychological issues at a much higher rate than previous years. Mental health is the fourth most discussed issue on the helpline amongst 16-25 year olds, comprising nearly 10% of all contacts. Psychological issues (mental health, together with emotional problems, self-harm and suicide) made up almost 50% of all contacts to Get Connected this quarter, a rise from 29% over the last year.
While this is a shocking increase, it could be just the tip of the iceberg. The statistics would be even more alarming if every young person who suffers from these issues came forward and sought help. While NHS research shows 1 person in 100 has a severe mental health condition, such as schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, MIND emphasises that statistics are only based on those who have sought help. With mental health still retaining somewhat of a social stigma, there are many more young people living with undiagnosed mental health issues: we remain ignorant of the true plight of mental health sufferers.
In accordance with this, Get Connected has found that 43% of young people prefer to use the helpline’s more anonymous channel, Webchat, to discuss mental health issues, as it negates the difficulty of picking up the phone. However, the difference between the number of contacts from males and females is drastic: 28% and 72%. Males clearly find it harder to communicate their problems, although MIND notes that males and females experience mental health problems in roughly equal numbers. Moreover, females get diagnosed and treated twice as often as males. These issues must be tackled at source to prevent the frequent knock-on effect of self-harm and suicide. Males are particularly vulnerable as, despite and as a result of their unwillingness to seek help, they comprise 75% of all suicides in the UK. Furthermore, the most common cause of death in males under 35 years is suicide.
It is clear that in order for males to feel comfortable communicating their problems, more impersonal ways of reaching help must be developed and Get Connected is committed to increasing its channels of communication to represent this need. The helpline’s Webchat service is going from strength to strength and the new SMS channel will give young people the chance to seek help on a more impersonal level. Get Connected hopes that through using these channels, more young people will be empowered to seek help, whatever their problem and however difficult it is to communicate.
What: Get Connected is the free, confidential, completely independent helpline service for children and young people under 25 in the UK, who need help but don’t know where to turn. Our helpline is available via phone, email, text, Webchat and WebHelp 24/7, our online directory, every day of the year.
Calls to Get Connected are free of charge from all telephone networks, including all mobile phone networks. http://www.getconnected.org/
Why: There are nineteen million young people under 25 in the UK.
Get Connected believes that every young person in the UK should be able to access the help they need to support their physical and emotional wellbeing.
Who: Get Connected’s team of 118 Helpline Volunteers helped more than 18,700 young people in 2010-11 – over 50 young people every day!
Report: This is the latest quarterly report from Get Connected, a registered charity which has been reporting for over 10 years on important issues facing young people including: homelessness, self harm, sexuality, domestic violence and emotional problems.
Statistics taken from the Get Connected contact log: April 2010-September 2011.
The new quarterly report from Get Connected, the UK’s confidential youth helpline service, reveals that more young people than ever are suffering from psychological issues. Mental health and emotional problems now make up a significant percentage of contacts to the helpline, but Get Connected poses the question, is this the real picture? http://www.getconnected.org/
Get Connected
Get Connected is the free, confidential helpline service for children and young people under 25 in the UK, who need help for any problem. Get Connected’s latest Quarter 3 Report has identified a very worrying trend, clearly showing that young people are dealing with psychological issues at a much higher rate than previous years. Mental health is the fourth most discussed issue on the helpline amongst 16-25 year olds, comprising nearly 10% of all contacts. Psychological issues (mental health, together with emotional problems, self-harm and suicide) made up almost 50% of all contacts to Get Connected this quarter, a rise from 29% over the last year.
While this is a shocking increase, it could be just the tip of the iceberg. The statistics would be even more alarming if every young person who suffers from these issues came forward and sought help. While NHS research shows 1 person in 100 has a severe mental health condition, such as schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, MIND emphasises that statistics are only based on those who have sought help. With mental health still retaining somewhat of a social stigma, there are many more young people living with undiagnosed mental health issues: we remain ignorant of the true plight of mental health sufferers.
In accordance with this, Get Connected has found that 43% of young people prefer to use the helpline’s more anonymous channel, Webchat, to discuss mental health issues, as it negates the difficulty of picking up the phone. However, the difference between the number of contacts from males and females is drastic: 28% and 72%. Males clearly find it harder to communicate their problems, although MIND notes that males and females experience mental health problems in roughly equal numbers. Moreover, females get diagnosed and treated twice as often as males. These issues must be tackled at source to prevent the frequent knock-on effect of self-harm and suicide. Males are particularly vulnerable as, despite and as a result of their unwillingness to seek help, they comprise 75% of all suicides in the UK. Furthermore, the most common cause of death in males under 35 years is suicide.
It is clear that in order for males to feel comfortable communicating their problems, more impersonal ways of reaching help must be developed and Get Connected is committed to increasing its channels of communication to represent this need. The helpline’s Webchat service is going from strength to strength and the new SMS channel will give young people the chance to seek help on a more impersonal level. Get Connected hopes that through using these channels, more young people will be empowered to seek help, whatever their problem and however difficult it is to communicate.
What: Get Connected is the free, confidential, completely independent helpline service for children and young people under 25 in the UK, who need help but don’t know where to turn. Our helpline is available via phone, email, text, Webchat and WebHelp 24/7, our online directory, every day of the year.
Calls to Get Connected are free of charge from all telephone networks, including all mobile phone networks. http://www.getconnected.org/
Why: There are nineteen million young people under 25 in the UK.
Get Connected believes that every young person in the UK should be able to access the help they need to support their physical and emotional wellbeing.
Who: Get Connected’s team of 118 Helpline Volunteers helped more than 18,700 young people in 2010-11 – over 50 young people every day!
Report: This is the latest quarterly report from Get Connected, a registered charity which has been reporting for over 10 years on important issues facing young people including: homelessness, self harm, sexuality, domestic violence and emotional problems.
Statistics taken from the Get Connected contact log: April 2010-September 2011.
0 comments:
Post a Comment