The last few years have seen a much needed shift in perceptions around youth mental health.
Teenagers are having conversations on subjects from anxiety to self-care that weren’t being had five years ago.
Young people are passionate about mental health – with many taking active steps as advocates and campaigners – something I discovered through my own work as a Member of Youth Parliament in Croydon.
Yet we still face huge mental health challenges, partly due to social media and its distorting influence on how we view our lives.
Since 2017, the number of children seeking help from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) has more than doubled in England.
Seventy children are treated at A&E for mental illness every day – four times as many as ten years ago.
Depression and self-harm are often not enough to get you over the threshold for care – with only severe cases receiving prompt treatment.
Our awareness-raising is meaningless if decision makers continue to underfund youth mental health services. Why should we campaign with “It’s okay to ask for help” if asking just puts you on an eighteen month long waiting list?
As Labour makes bold claims for public spending, and the Conservatives appear to move away from the rhetoric of austerity, does this election promise real change to young voters?
The Conservative manifesto makes no reference to youth mental health.
They have, however, promised to make the NHS Long-Term Plan, launched in January, law.
The plan includes 345,000 additional under 25s having access to mental health support teams, delivered in partnership with the Department of Education.
However, I remain sceptical of their real commitment to the issue. It is Tory cuts to local budgets, education and the NHS which have left us in our current state.
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Boris Johnson’s attempts to distance himself from the cuts made by his own party is not fooling a generation who have spent half our lives under austerity.
Labour has promised to allocate £845 million per year for ‘Healthy Young Minds’, to establish a network of open access mental health hubs to enable more children to access mental health support, and recruit almost 3,500 qualified counsellors to guarantee every child access to school counsellors.
Although expensive – this is a preventative, long term approach, putting less pressure on crisis mental health services.
Easily accessible expert advice will improve mental health literacy, setting young people up for life, not only to understand their own mental health but to support their peers.
To me, the Labour party demonstrates a strong youth mental health offer. Yet our generation would be cheated if our vote brought in a Labour government who never afterwards sought to hear our voices.
UK Youth Parliament, the British Youth Council’s NHS Youth Forum, and youth patient participation groups – these must receive the support they need to ensure that young people can input into life-saving services, shaping our country’s provision of mental health care so that it genuinely meets our needs.