VIDEO: Young people don’t think adults take their mental health seriously
The majority of young people in Scotland don’t tell anyone if they are struggling with their mental health.
The majority of young people in Scotland don’t tell anyone if they are struggling with their mental health.
New figures reveal that young people are not going to family, teachers, carers and others who are responsible for looking after them when they are experiencing negative thoughts and feelings.
Young people say they are not taken seriously by adults when it comes to mental health.
Mari McLaughlin, from Glasgow, has been suffering from mental health problems since she was at primary school - now 21, she's been sharing her story with Clyde News:
It is launching alongside See Me’s What’s On Your Mind pack, which will be available in schools across Scotland, supporting teachers, and pupils to develop skills to tackle stigma and discrimination.
Emma Hewitt, 20, from Paisley, first experienced difficulties with her mental health when she was 13, with issues of self-harm and suicidal thoughts. However no-one spoke about mental health, so she didn’t know what was happening to her.
She said: “If there was more information around I would have known what to look out for and would have maybe gone and spoken to someone before I was forced to.
“If you have a physical problem you go and tell your parent or the school nurse. But if you have a mental health problem it isn’t that easy. At 12 or 13, I didn’t talk about mental health, I didn’t know anything about it. At some points I felt completely different. But at other points I thought everyone else was going through the same thing.
“Adults didn’t really tend to understand or know what to do, so I thought it was better to keep it to myself. It would have been easier if someone had spoken to me.”
Lisa Cohen, See Me programme manager, said: “Young people don’t feel that adults take them seriously when it comes to mental health. But they should be able to speak openly about what they are going through, without feeling guilty. It is okay not to be okay.
“Everyone involved in young people’s lives needs to have the confidence to open up conversations about mental health and be supportive about what to do next.
“We all need someone we can talk to and trust. We want young people to know that there will be a person that will have the ability to listen and be there for you. ”