Local charity calls for compulsory mental health training in schools

'Introducing compulsory well being programmes in schools would help equip children when faced with mental health issues.'

That is the message from a local charity to mark World Mental Health day 2019.

According to research over 20% of young people experience 'serious mental health' issues by the age of 18.

Amanda Jones is the Operations Manager for resilience and well being at Action Mental Health:

"We feel that mental and emotional well being should be a core part of the curriculum.

"That parity of physical and mental health is so important, mental health needs to be considered in terms of we look after our physical health.

"We eat well, we take exercise but also there are things we can do for mental health so it is about...bringing those both together."

And the charity is also calling on policy makers to treat physical and mental health budgets the same:

"In England there's 12% of the health budget directed towards funding mental health services and in Northern Ireland that's 6%.

"So that's a huge gap there and we would be campaigning for parity for mental health to receive the same importance and the same funding as physical health."

If you're struggling with mental health issues and need help and support contact Lifeline here or Samaritans