Advances in technology have propelled young people – and their problems – into a different age, so how can we reach them? DDN reports from Cranstoun’s social justice conference.
‘What are your biggest challenges?’ This question brought a range of answers from young people, said Vicky Branch, Cranstoun’s head of children and young people. Mental health, loneliness, access to services, waiting lists, substance use, bullying, violence… many issues emerged and many were not being addressed early enough before becoming problematic.
So how could we think about earlier interventions? Young people’s centres were being closed and there was a lack of inclusive social spaces and activities. Simple steps made a big difference – Routes had been created as a youth hub from free space in Dudley’s Merry Hill shopping centre. With Cranstoun’s innovation fund it had become an open access, walk-in service and a safe space for help, support and guidance, which was co-produced with young people.
Phil Harris, a treatment specialist and author, had experience of developing services for the transition to adulthood. ‘We’re not only having to prepare children for adult life – but one that’s changing rapidly,’ he said. Challenges for future generations were ‘not things we grew up with’ and the challenges converged ‘in the age of overwhelm’.
One in ten children had a mental health condition – an upward trend reflected in the 100,000 children treated for mental health issues each year. ‘The modern world is having an impact and anxiety is the shift we’re seeing,’ he said. Specific technology-influenced problems and terms such as ‘doomerism’ had emerged, where ‘the doomer goes down a rabbit hole of nihilism and defeatism’.
The transition point from child to adult was a ‘particularly sensitive period’ and there were long waiting lists for support – the time delay between symptoms and treatment meant that 250,000 children were waiting. Symptoms could seem like something else – psychosis might appear to be depression – and in fact it was rare to find someone with a single presentation. Furthermore, we were seeing that ‘some disorders we thought were the same are profoundly different’.
‘We need a big shift in how we think about mental health and look at environments and brain development,’ he said. New approaches might include AI and digital therapies, including games.
‘Violence casts a long shadow over children’s lives,’ added Caleb Jackson, head of youth at the Youth Endowment Fund. A children, violence and vulnerability study had assessed the youth sector’s role in preventing violence and found that while youth activities were popular, youth service cuts were huge and had made delivery challenging. ‘We need to reach, rather than say hard to reach,’ he said and offered approaches to reducing youth violence through the YEF toolkit.
Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS) had conducted their annual survey about students’ relationships with drugs and alcohol. Hannah Head, who ran their drug and alcohol impact training (and was also a member of Students for Sensible Drugs Policy) highlighted a zero tolerance approach and lack of knowledge in many universities. But there were barriers to universities having a harm reduction focus, she said – including misunderstanding of drugs laws – and there were obvious opportunities for interventions and initiatives that were being ignored. Greater trust between universities and their students would offer chances to communicate on health and wellbeing and be much clearer about a harm reduction approach and support. Bristol were doing this well with large posters on campus and an onsite drugs advisor, while Leeds were using Instagram stories as a more effective way of engaging than just posts. It was essential that students knew the risks and understood about drug safety, she said. A Universities UK Drug Taskforce report* had acknowledged harm reduction and – despite being ‘watered down’ by the time it was released – had said that universities should adopt a harm reduction approach.
*Enabling student health and success, available here