Tots as young as TWO suffer mental health problems – with 1 in 8 kids at risk, NHS warns

THOUSANDS of kids as young as two are now living with mental disorders, official statistics suggest.

ONE in eight kids aged between the ages of five and 19 are living with a mental health issue, while around 113,000 toddlers in England have problems before they even start school.

One in 18 preschool kids aged between two and four have at least one mental health problem.

The report, Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2017, was published today by NHS Digital and looked at information on 9,117 children and young people.

It’s the first time that children as young as two have been included in such studies.

For five to 15-year-olds, the overall prevalence of mental disorder has increased from 9.7 per cent in 1999 to 11.2 per cent in 2017.

One in six 17-19-year-olds were found to have a mental health issue, with one in 16 suffering from more than one disorder at the time of being interviewed.

Older girls were more than twice as likely as boys of the same age to have a mental disorder, having higher rates of emotional disorder (22.4 per cent) and self-harm than any other group.

Meanwhile, 5.6 per cent of girls aged 17-19 said they had body dysmorphic disorder, an anxiety disorder characterised by the obsessive idea that some aspect of their body or appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix.

A third of young people aged 14-19 who identified as LGBTQ had a mental disorder, compared to 13.2 per cent of heterosexual teens.

Nearly half (46.8 per cent) of 17-19-year-olds with a mental disorder had self-harmed or made a suicide attempt.

Every 90 minutes, someone kills themselves in the UK – with suicide being the biggest killer of people under the age of 35.

Men are three times more likely than women to take their own lives.

Both of those are really alarming statistics, which is why The Sun has launched the You’re Not Alone campaign, in a bid to get more people talking about mental health.

Alana Ryan, Senior Policy Officer at the NSPCC, said: “When a generation of children is struggling with their mental health with many having self-harmed or attempted suicide, we are fundamentally failing our young people.

“Our own research shows even if children are referred for specialist mental health treatment there is a slim chance they will receive it, which is totally unacceptable.”

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Denise Hatton, chief executive of YMCA England & Wales, described the figures as a “wake-up call”.

She said: “These figures are shocking and while progress has been made to normalise conversations about mental health and successive governments have made additional funding for NHS services available, today’s figures are a wake-up call that this clearly hasn’t gone far enough.

“To end this crisis that is ruining young lives, it’s crucial that action and investment goes into preventing young people from experiencing poor mental health in the first place.

“From preventative youth and community services, to education in schools, mental health must be incorporated in every aspect of daily life to stop young people from reaching crisis point.

“Without preventative services and with the NHS struggling to cope, too many young people are still left alone to deal with their mental health difficulties by themselves, leading to a vicious circle of solitude and suffering.”

Lily Makurah, national lead for mental health at Public Health England, said: “It’s concerning to see children and young people facing mental health challenges.

“We know mental health influences children’s ability to cope with the normal stresses of life, to learn productively, to develop positive relationships and to make a contribution to our community.

“We’re working with partners to minimise risks for children and young people and enhance factors that promote and protect positive mental health at key stages across a child’s life.”

Mark Rowland, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation said that the publication of this new data was “long overdue”.

“The growth in emotional disorders in children between 2004 and 2017 is a serious cause for concern. So much has changed in our society and technologically over the past 14 years, we must not let another 14 years go by before the next survey.

“Today’s prevalence figures show what many have been saying for some time: some groups in society are more likely to be affected by mental health disorders. Those most at risk of mental disorders are children from low-income households, children whose parents have poor mental health or are in receipt of a disability payment, and 14 to 19-year-olds who identified as LGBTQ.

“We need to support the children who are most vulnerable while making children and young people’s mental health a consistently high priority, and everyone’s business.

“Until we address inequalities and ensure a consistent culture of prevention for all children, young people and their families, we will keep failing the next generation right at the start of their lives.”

It is thought adults are often spending too long checking emails and social media on their phone and failing to give kids the attention they need.

Professor Craig Morgan, Professor of Social Epidemiology at King’s College London, said: “It is perhaps surprising, given the social changes in the past 13 years (e.g., rise in social media, austerity and rising inequality, etc.) that the overall prevalence of mental health problems among young people have remained relatively stable.

“This is especially so as many of the factors associated with an increased risk of mental health problems (e.g., social media use, cyber bullying, low socio-economic position, etc.) have increased in the past 13 years.”

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