Child and Youth Mental Health

The concept of ‘One Good Adult’ is to emphasise the importance of a dependable adult who can support and protect the mental wellbeing of a child and/or a young person. The presence of One Good Adult has been found to be a key indicator of how well a young person copes with their struggles. Although it’s important for young people to have One Good Adult, it is equally important to be that One Good Adult.

One of the most interesting pieces of Irish research was the ‘My World Survey’ a national study of youth mental health in Ireland, which revealed a number of findings about the real mental health needs of young people. The report promotes the concept of the ‘One Good Adult’; this is seen as important to the mental wellbeing of young people. Over 70% of young people reported that they received very high or high support from a special adult. The study strongly confirms that the presence of ‘One Good Adult’ is important to the mental health of young people. It has a positive impact on their self-belief, confidence, coping skills and optimism about the future. This ‘One Good Adult’ can be a parent, grandparent, teacher, sports coach or someone who is available to them in times of need.

Helpful Resources

• Healthy Minds – One Good Adult Session: The One Good Adult session (number 12) from our Healthy Minds Resource can help raise awareness of the concept and what is means to be that one good adult.
• Resilience Toolkit: Contains a One Good Adult activity session for children and young people, to help them identify the qualities a one good adult should have and who theirs might be.

Schools play a key role in protecting and supporting the mental health of children and young people. A whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing can help children and young people develop the knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes they need for mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing for now and in the future.

A whole school approach makes mental health everyone’s business and in doing so helps to eliminate stigma and discrimination and create a more understanding school community and society which values mental health equally alongside physical health.

Mental health and wellbeing should be embedded into all aspects of school life from Improvement Plans to the curriculum, consideration of the physical environment, ethos, resources, facilities, and its partnership working to enhance and extend expertise in the area of mental health and wellbeing.

Helpful Resources

• Resources for Early Years, Schools, and Youth Providers: A comprehensive document that offers a range of suggested resources that can be used in early years, schools, by youth providers to help protect, promote, and support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, the resources highlighted have been developed by Education and Health colleagues and National Mental Health organisations.
• Mental Health Planning Tools: A range of tools to help your school plan for mental health and wellbeing.
• Healthy Minds Resilience Session: The Resilience session from our Healthy Minds Resource (number 13) can help raise awareness of what resilience is, what it means to be resilient, the benefits to mental health and what we can do to help develop resilience.
• Resilience Poster: A poster that includes top 10 tips for developing resilience.
• Resilience Toolkit: This Emotional Resilience Toolkit provides practical guidance in promoting the resilience of young people as part of an integrated health and wellbeing programme.

Many children and young people have links to their communities and opportunities to be involved in various youth groups and clubs. Youth services, voluntary and community organisations are in a very good position to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.  For some children and young people they are more accessible than traditional statutory services, often reach the most vulnerable children and young people at risk of poorer mental health and many activities undertaken by community organisations already help support and improve mental health and wellbeing. 

It is important that youth services, voluntary and community organisations have access to mental health resources and have a baseline knowledge and understanding of mental health and feel confident to intervene to help children and young people in situations of distress, including self harm and suicide. 

Helpful Resources

• Child and Youth Mental Health Supports: A document which maps out the range of available mental health supports for children and young people to access, including websites, apps, and helplines.
• Healthy Minds Resilience Session: The Resilience session from our Healthy Minds Resource (number 13) can help raise awareness of what resilience is, what it means to be resilient, the benefits to mental health and what we can do to help develop resilience.
• Resilience Poster: A poster that includes top 10 tips for developing resilience.

For children and young people mental health problems can develop as a result of life circumstances like exam stress, transitions, caring responsibilities, relationships, sexual identity, poverty, unemployment, grief, illness and long term conditions and family imprisonment. Many of these mental health problems are mild and temporary and often manageable with help from supportive trusted adults like teachers, youth workers, parents/caregivers and peer groups. The problems pass as the child or young person moves on and finds new solutions. However, some children and young people may require support from an organisation who specialises in the area that is impacting on their mental health, such as bereavement.

It is important that children, families and young people have range of support options for early intervention and can be helped to find their way to appropriate help quickly.

Helpful Resources

• Children and Young People Mental Health Supports: A document which maps out the range of available mental health supports for children and young people to access.
• Accessing Mental Health Support – Child and Youth Poster: A poster illustrating the different ways in which mental health supports can be accessed; from 1 to 1 support, reading, group work, phone and online. Anyone working with children and young people can download it to populate it with their own update to date information on an ongoing basis, relevant to their organisation, locality area and wider.
• CAMHS Video: Watch this video from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) which includes information for referrers.

Still concerned?

For some children and young people they may be finding it difficult to cope and may think of ending their life, if you are concerned about a child or young person’s mental health and wellbeing and feel they may be in distress, their Doctor should be their first point of contact. If you feel the young person’s life in immediate danger please call 999 for assistance.

Unfortunately, some children and young people can find it difficult to cope at times in their lives. As a result, they may harm themselves or think of ending their life. It is therefore important that frontline staff working with children and young people are confident and supported to intervene and help children and young people in situations of distress, including self-harm and risk of suicide.

The NHSGGC Self-Harm Forum is a group of trainers who have completed the What’s the Harm: Self-Harm Awareness and Skills Training Course. They play a key role in building capacity across the board area to help standardise understanding of and responses to self harm when used as a coping strategy. If you want to hear more about their work, please contact us at ggc.mhead@nhs.scot.

Helpful Resources

• Suicide alert resources: for staff working in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area to support you if you are talking with someone who may be at risk of suicide. It explains the ‘ALERT’ model and provides some ideas for putting it into practice, as well as useful information about support services and suicide prevention resources. Resources include a briefing note and prompt sheet. A resource directory of mental health APPS, helplines and websites to support staff with signposting and sharing of information that is appropriate to need.
• A Whole Establishment Approach to Self-Harm Training and Awareness for Early Years and Schools: A resource to support schools and early years’ establishments take a planned and co-ordinated approach to self-harm awareness and training that will help equip staff with the self-harm knowledge and skills appropriate to their role.
• Promoting Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Preventing Self-Harm and Suicide: A series of animations co-produced by NHS Education for Scotland and Public Health Scotland. Developed to support the knowledge and skills of those in health, social care, and the wider public sectors who need to be informed about mental health, self-harm, and suicide prevention in relation to children and young people.
• Child and Youth Mental Health Supports: A document which maps out the range of available mental health supports for children and young people to access, including websites and helplines.

Love it or loathe it – digital and social media is here to stay. In less than a lifetime, digital devices and the internet have infiltrated every corner of our lives. Digital is the medium by which most young people conduct their lives; nearly all children went online in 2021 (99%), and the majority used a mobile phone (72%) or tablet (69%) to do so.

These young people don’t see a distinction between their online and offline lives. They are familiar with digital tools and know their way around them. In addition, some of the characteristics of the online world – anonymity and privacy – make it easier to talk about sensitive, potentially embarrassing subjects like their own mental health.

Helpful Resources

• Aye Mind: We have developed a platform for anyone who works with children and young people to help them embrace digital tools to support their mental health and wellbeing. It includes practical ‘how-to’ guides for implementing digital tools in your local area, a directory of the latest digital tools and technologies, and a range of information on digital tools and technologies.
• Online Harms – Useful Websites, Helplines, and Reporting Mechanisms: A document outlining the range of helplines, websites, and reporting mechanisms to support those who have experienced a variety of online harms. This includes cyberbullying, harassment, hate crime, online gambling-related harms, online sexual exploitation and abuse, scams and fraud, and content promoting disordered eating, self-harm, or suicide.

Further Reading

• “It’s not safe and consistent”: Read our report sharing the lived experiences of young people using social media who have experience of self-harm, including the potential risks and protective factors social media offers them.