Developing Healthy Attitudes

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Mental Health

Overview

Mental health is a wide subject but in basic terms it is a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Your mental health can affect how you think, feel, and act. It also determines how people handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. The causes for mental health problems vary from one person to another and can include: biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry; life experiences and/or family history of mental health problems. Mental health can be affected by common experiences like relationship difficulties, loss, confidence and self-esteem, exam stress, as well as trauma or abuse.

These are some early signs to look out for if someone has deteriorating mental health:

  • Eating or sleeping too much or too little.
  • Pulling away from people and usual activities.
  • Having low or no energy.
  • Feeling numb or like nothing matters.
  • Having unexplained aches and pains.
  • Feeling helpless or hopeless.
  • Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual.
  • Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared.
  • Yelling or fighting with family and friends.
  • Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships.
  • Having persistent thoughts and memories that they can’t get out of their head.
  • Hearing voices or believing things that are not true.
  • Thinking of harming themselves or others.
  • Inability to perform daily tasks like brushing their teeth or getting to school.

The list above includes a number of non-specific signs that are difficult to distinguish from the normal ups and downs of a young person’s life. These often come to people’s attention when they represent a change in behaviour. It is important to find out what is behind these feelings or behaviours, irrespective of whether they are new or more long term. Intervening early to improve self-esteem, resilience, emotional literacy and coping strategies and building in support for students can help meet emotional wellbeing needs and prevent mental health problems in many cases.

The most common diagnosed mental health problems in children and young people are:

  • Depression, it affects more children and young people today than in the last few decades. Teenagers are more likely to experience depression than young children, however increasing numbers of children are reporting low mood.
  • Self-Harm, some people find self-harm helps them to cope with emotional pain by experiencing physical pain, which releases endorphins giving temporary relief, often followed by guilt and shame. Most young people will try to hide the harm they have done to themselves (e.g. cuts, burns and scratching). Even though someone may self-harm this does not necessarily mean they want to take their own life, but it does increase the risk of accidental fatal injury and can lead to suicide in a minority of cases.
  • Anxiety, everyone has some level of anxiety however it’s when this anxiety interferes with someone’s life that it becomes a problem. Anxiety can take many forms such as panic attacks, becoming withdrawn, avoiding situations and being easily irritated.
  • Eating disorders, usually start in the teenage years and are more common in girls than boys. The number of young people who develop an eating disorder is small, but eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa can have serious consequences for their physical health and development.
  • ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder affecting concentration and behaviour.

These are just a few of the many mental health illnesses people can have. Some symptoms can be triggered by hormonal changes in adolescence, but may also be an indication of psychological distress.

Key Facts

  • 1 in 10 children and young people aged 5 - 16 suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder - that is around three children in every class
  • Between 1 in every 12 and 1 in 15 children and young people deliberately self-harm
  • 72% of children in care have behavioural or emotional problems - these are some of the most vulnerable people in our society
  • 70% of children and young people who have a mental health problem have not had appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age.
  • 12% of Sheffield secondary pupils say they feel very sad or depressed most days

Best Practice

The Healthy Minds Framework is being rolled out across Sheffield schools to embed an emotionally healthy culture through identification of Healthy Minds Champions, workforce development and consultation with CAMHS, to support students’ emotional wellbeing and mental health needs.

Resources

Epic Friends is a website created by CAMHS for young people wanting to know more about mental health.

Information about mental health disorders resources for school staff and referral pathways.

Young Minds is a website has resources for young people, professionals and parents.

Sheffield Children and Young People Suicide prevention Pathway provides information, referral thresholds and resources for families and professionals.

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