About the campaign
In 2020’s Make Your Mark ballot young people voted for mental health as one of their top 3 priorities for the coming year. UK Youth Parliament will be campaigning alongside YoungMinds to build a movement for change and ensure that children and young people’s mental health is at the heart of the government’s approach to pandemic recovery.
We’ll be working with you to listen to young people, creating a blueprint for children and young people’s mental health, and setting up local mental health support hubs.
Campaign Detail
We will be partnering with YoungMinds to support their campaign actions for local mental health hubs and to create a blueprint for children and young people’s mental health.
Mental health facts and statistics
- 20% of adolescents may experience a mental health problem in any given year.
- 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24.
- In 2020, one in six (16.0%) children aged 5 to 16 years were identified as having a probable mental disorder, increasing from one in nine (10.8%) in 2017.
- Children and young people with a probable mental disorder were more likely to say that lockdown had made their life worse (54.1% of 11 to 16 year olds, and 59.0% of 17 to 22 year olds), than those unlikely to have a mental disorder (39.2% and 37.3% respectively)
Some statistics from YoungMinds about Covid-19 and young people’s mental health from their recent survey:
- 83% of respondents agreed that the coronavirus pandemic had made their mental health worse. (32% said it had made their mental health “much worse”; 51% said it had made their mental health “a bit worse”)
- Among the respondents who were accessing mental health support in the lead-up to the crisis (including from the NHS, school and university counsellors, private providers, charities and helplines), 74% said that they were still getting some level of mental health support, despite the immense challenges services are facing. 26% of young people who had been accessing support said that they were not currently able to access support.
- When asked to share how different activities affected their mental health, respondents reported that face-to-face calls with friends (72%), watching TV/films (72%), exercise (60%) and learning new skills (59%) were helpful for their mental health during this time.
- 66% of respondents agreed that watching or reading the news was unhelpful for their mental health.
Campaign timeline
Launched the campaign
Tell your MP why Mental Health support hubs are needed in your area
We believe young people should get mental health support where they live. If you believe the same, tell your local MP; ask them to write to the Prime Minister calling for national funding for mental health hubs in the Autumn’s Comprehensive Spending Review (where the Government says how it plans on spending money for the next 3 years)
It’s really simple; find out who your MP is here, and use our template email here
Find out what other young people think
Run Young Minds consultation in schools, colleges and youth groups to design a new vision for what mental health support for children and young people should look like. Download the session plan and guidance here
Influence how Government funds Mental Health support
Campaign for our vision to be included in the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review in November
Movement for Change launch
Young Minds will launch their “Movement for Change”, enabling young people to campaign on the issues that matter to them
