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You and Yours - Transcript 91热爆 Radio 4 |
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TX: 08.02.10 - Mental Health and Young People PRESENTER: JULIAN WORRICKER |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 91热爆 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WORRICKER Now one in 10 children and young people, aged between five and 16, suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder, that's around three in every school class. It appears there's been a huge increase in the number of children suffering from these conditions. One study from the Nuffield Foundation indicates that in the 25 years up to 1999 there was about a 70% increase in certain psychiatric conditions, such as serious depression or anxiety. Various projects are underway to help young people. The government is currently rolling out a three year project called Targeted Mental Health in Schools. And the charity Young Minds has launched a manifesto for better mental health for young people, it calls for a range of changes from reducing stigma to better training for those working with young people. Eighteen-year-old Nicky and 22-year-old Gary have experienced these problems first hand. Gary's is the first voice you'll hear, as he explains when his problems began. GARY It goes back to about 11 or 12 there were a range of different things that were happening at the time - from my mum going for an operation to being bullied at secondary school, to the sense as well, all of a sudden, that - it was almost like someone flicked a switch in my brain and there was a disconnection from reality, I felt like I was in a walking dream, that kind of thing. NICKY I was about 14, 15 and I was a big girl, always had been, always been teased about it and decided to go on a diet. Once it starts taking over that's when you realise that something's not quite right. For me the bulimia was just trying to regain control but never quite succeeding. WORRICKER How much weight did you actually lose in that period? NICKY About five and a half stone. WORRICKER And how did you feel physically, quite apart from mentally, as a result of that? NICKY I was the walking dead. GARY I had got to the point where I was self-harming and I was actively suicidal at the time, to put it simply. My quality of schoolwork had completely plummeted, which has always been a problem throughout my teenage years. My ability to cope with the stress at this school, which was a very highly competitive - the pressure was on to get such a high grades, I think that was something that really pushed me over the edge and pushed me to the limits of what I could cope with in my life. NICKY At that stage my family didn't want to acknowledge really what was going on, to them it was just a diet. Friends knew, they could see right through it and they were really the ones pushing me to try and go and see someone or being there if I needed help. WORRICKER At what point then did you get help or did you look for help? NICKY I never did really with the eating things, I never did. The following year I became depressed - self-harming - I didn't tell anyone, sat my GCSEs and then came into the beginning of sixth form knowing that it was going to get really bad, I could feel it and attempted to tell my parents but they didn't believe me. At that point when I knew it was getting bad I approached the school for help. I spoke to my form tutor and he passed me on to the head of sixth form and the school nurse and from that point they were really, really supportive. They got me into see the school doctor as soon as they could and from there the school doctor arranged for me to see the school counsellor and she would liaise with my GP as well, which was really good. GARY The school itself was no help, the school nurse was helpful but I'd say there wasn't really the support I felt that was needed, it was more practical things like look after your diet - don't eat so much sugar - try and get a good night's sleep. And when I eventually told a teacher that I'd been self-harming because I didn't want to do PE because of my cuts and all that kind of thing, I told them that I was at some point suicidal and they ended up ringing my mum and dad just to say I'd said this and then they didn't offer them any support, didn't offer me any really additional support until my parents kind of fought for it. NICKY At that point I was referred to a psychiatrist from my GP and she put me on medication, changed the medication - all of these things - and then really started suggesting that I needed to be admitted. And there was great resistance from my side and my parents. GARY When I was 16 I was referred to a child psychiatrist, after my parents called my GP. I mean for me it felt finally like oh someone might be taking this seriously and I was very quickly put on antidepressants. Antidepressants didn't work basically, it turned out a couple of years ago I was diagnosed with what's called bipolar disorder, where you get extreme highs and lows. And putting me on antidepressants simply made me constantly high almost. NICKY I was admitted for two months the first time with about 10 weeks in between and then I had to go in a second time. The second time was not planned at all - unexpected. And during that time they really did coordinate with the school at the hospital to help that work. WORRICKER And how are you now? NICKY Struggling - I think life is always a struggle when you live with mental health problems. WORRICKER And also because you've now moved from being considered to be of an age to be within the children's services area and now adult services - how has that transition been? NICKY Very difficult. I think what really struck me is that before I was 18 my life was worth more in their eyes, it was worth saving but after you're 18 not so much. WORRICKER Well both Nicky and Gary are put of the young minds very important kids panel, that's a group of 20 young people with serious mental health problems who campaign nationally to put mental health on the agenda. I'm joined by Sarah Brennan, chief executive of Young Minds and by Martin Ward, the deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. Sarah, to you first, we heard an inconsistency there - that Nicky had good support from school, Gary didn't - is inconsistency of care one of the key problems here? BRENNAN I think you've actually put your finger on the button there. Across the country what we see is really patchy care. In some areas there might be some very good services but in other areas there may be nothing at all. And so for parents and for young people it's absolutely impossible to know what they might expect to receive, what they could ask for and how to actually access the services at all. WORRICKER How would your manifesto address that particular issue? BRENNAN Well one of the things we're asking for is a thing called a quality mark, like a kite mark, and if services actually did have this it would be a way of showing outwardly to the public what could be available and that this is a really good service and that young people's voices are really listened to and that this service really tries to do it best. And to actually have some kind of minimum standard. So that's what we want to see across the country so that both parents and young people and children can know what they can ask for and that it's straightforward and very easy to access. WORRICKER Martin Ward, what are your members experiences here? WARD Well I think that they lead the schools and colleges around the country and for the most part are extremely keen to give a better service and more support, so that Nicky's experience is something that we would be pleased to see replicated and Gary's is one that we clearly don't want to see replicated. So we'd like to see sharing of good practice around the country. I think my members frequently complain about the limited resources they have in this area, limited expertise, and the slow and inadequate response that they get when they refer young people on. WORRICKER I want to talk about resources in a moment but I'm interested that when you were a college principal you appointed a counsellor yourself - how effective did that prove to be? WARD Well that was one of the best things I ever did as a college principal because it meant that - in two senses - one it made it much easier for young people to present with their problems, instead of keeping them - keeping them away from the college and secondly, when they did present with problems it gave us that extra resource as someone to - who did understand what she could do and what she couldn't and where to go for the extra support when she was out of her area of expertise. WORRICKER Sarah, on resources, this is what the government has said to us this morning: "We've put in place a range of government led support to deal with mental health issues, including through the Targeted Mental Health in Schools programme..." which I referred to, "which will be rolled out to every local authority from April 2010 backed with £60 million of funding. This school based programme is providing training and support for professionals to help them to identify any issues early and to act quickly to help children and their families deal with their problems and get the right support". What's your response to that? BRENNAN Well we're fully supportive of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools programme. It's already showing some very good results. The problem is that at the end of next March - that's March 2011 - the additional funding will come to an end, this programme is a new initiative and it's then expected to be mainstreamed. And what does that mean? And what we are concerned about is what this means is without resources and the additional help schools have a huge programme of work to deliver and we could then see the progress disappearing once again. WORRICKER When you say mainstreamed the argument - the explanation for that is what - they say it will go - the money will come out of a larger pot, it won't be dedicated to this one particular area? BRENNAN That's exactly right, it will become part of the whole programme of work that schools have to deliver and then will be part and parcel of their overall programme of services, it won't have a specially ring fenced pot of money particularly for this area of work. WORRICKER Which Martin Ward presumably concerns you, given what you were saying about funding earlier? WARD Yes I think there's two points there. Clearly at a time when funding for schools and colleges can only expect that it's going to be cut in the present climate, if that funding that's been used for this purpose is just sort of pushed into the general pot, which is simultaneously shrinking, then it's very unlikely that it will be carried on in the way that it has been. And secondly, of course, is the other services that are available - the children and adolescent mental health service - again is quite variable around the country and one would like to see much more - much more support available to schools and colleges. WORRICKER Sarah Brennan, deal with this final point - there will be doubters listening to this conversation who will acknowledge the serious cases when they arise of course but will also wonder if we are now attaching perhaps a fashionable label to some of the less serious conditions, there does seem to be an extraordinary speed of rise here. BRENNAN Well all we can say is let's look at the facts, and let's look at the research. We've been seeing a consistent growth in distress amongst our children and young people in the western world since the middle of the last century. We need to do something about that. And the manifesto that we have has a range of demands that we think would make a difference, going from changing the stigma around mental health and around talking about feelings, down to dealing with the transitions that Nicky referred to which is so often so difficult and helping parents as well. WORRICKER Okay, we will have to leave it there. Thank you both very much indeed for coming on the programme - Sarah Brennan and Martin Ward. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 91热爆 is not responsible for external websites |
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