Children’s Mental Health Week: give children a voice

It’s Children’s Mental Health Week in the UK (5th-11th February 2024) and the theme for this year is ‘My Voice Matters’, as new data shows young people face barriers when seeking mental health support. Children’s Mental Health Week was founded in 2015 by the charity Place2Be. Now in its tenth year, the national awareness...

AI could speed up diagnosis of child mental health conditions

A research programme is working to develop an AI system that could revolutionise child mental health care. Dr Anna Moore is leading the project, based at the University of Cambridge, which is using cutting-edge technology to hopefully speed up the diagnosis of mental health conditions in children and identify those most at risk of...

Childline: Over 100,000 children seek mental health help

Data released by the NSPCC reveals that over 100,000 children contacted Childline last year for help with mental health struggles. The confidential charity helpline delivered more than 105,000 counselling sessions on mental health and emotional wellbeing between 1st April 2022 and 31st March 2023 – over half of the total number of counselling sessions...

Youth Mental Health Day focuses on building confidence

Youth Mental Health Day 2023 is focused on the theme #BeBrave, to help boost the courage and confidence of young people. Tuesday 19th September 2023 is Youth Mental Health Day, an awareness campaign founded by teenage mental health charity stem4 in 2020 to improve understanding and increase discussion of mental health in young people....

Child mental health referrals up 39% after ‘difficult’ year

Referrals for child mental health services have risen by 39% in England in just one year, official data has revealed. NHS referrals for mental health treatment for under-18s increased to more than 1.1 million during 2021-22, compared to 839,570 in 2020-21, and 850,741 in 2019-20. The figures – branded “alarming” by the NSPCC –...

Parents have lost faith in child mental health care

An investigation carried out by the BBC has found that parents and headteachers have lost faith in the mental health care system for children and young people as they face “agonisingly” long waits for treatment. After examining data from half of England’s services, investigators found that 1 in 5 children seen for mental health...