Opinion: Early intervention critical to support children and young people with their mental health

Active Minds is a non-profit, community interest company which supports participants with fitness and wellbeing activities to encourage, and develop positive mental and physical health.

Active Minds was created to address a gap in the local area, with support for people who may be experiencing challenges associated with mental and physical health.

We run numerous programmes, particularly our highly successful Wellbeing Warriors programme, which provides a focused six-week programme aimed at schoolchildren to drive awareness and sustainable action for mental health.

Active Minds is pleased to see the return of World Mental Health and calls for it to be used to drive sustainable change in the way poor mental health is supported and cared for.

Young Minds recently released the following worrying statistics.

More than a quarter of young people have tried to end their lives while waiting for mental health support; More than 40 per cent waited more than a month for mental health support after seeking it; Almost half a million young people are being treated for their mental health every month; Latest NHS figures show urgent referrals have reached the highest levels since before the pandemic began, with a 37 per cent increase on the previous month.

There is a pandemic of poor mental health across the UK, particularly in young children.

We urgently need consistent, focused action to combat this critical issue.

We have had more than 1,000 children participating across our programmes in the last 12 months, highlighting the importance of mental health.

Early intervention is critical to support children and young people and to provide a strong supportive framework for positive mental health.

We need to see strong partnerships across charities, CIC’s, government, local authorities and communities to drive this much needed change.

Only by working together will we start to address this crisis that we are all facing.

Active Minds invites Therese Coffey, Coun Ben Bradley, Coun Jason Zadrozny and Lee Anderson to a meeting to discuss the work we do and how they can help create a better future for all people that experience mental health challenges.

You can find out more about Active Minds at activemindsuk.wixsite.com/website