1.5 million young people may need additional mental health support due to the pandemic

Children in West Yorkshire struggling with their mental health are being encouraged to seek help

Author: Hannah NorburyPublished 14th Feb 2022

Children in West Yorkshire struggling with their mental health are being encouraged to seek help.

1 in 6 young people experienced mental health issues in 2020- compared to 1 in 9 in 2017.

1.5 million young people in England may need additional mental health support due to the pandemic.

Emily Cotter from Leeds Mind said:

"One third of mental health issues in adult hood are connected to an adverse childhood experience, so trauma or difficulty at a young age.

"It has been long been done that 50% of mental illness in adult life start before age 15.

"It is possible to look at this increase with a small sense of optimism in that children and young people are becoming more emotionally intelligent.

"A recent survey showed 67% of young people said they'd prefer to access mental health support without seeing their GP, but nearly half said they didn't know how else to access help, so this is about getting more funding into young people and children's mental health."

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.