WIREDGOV

A new survey has revealed that 45 per cent of children aged 10-14 have reported being unable to sleep because of stress or worry, with fifty nine per cent saying they feel worried or sad at least once a week.

The findings come as the Big Lottery Fund, the largest distributor of National Lottery Good Causes money, launches its £75m HeadStart programme aimed at helping children in this key age group to cope with the pressures of modern life.

The Fund has worked closely with its own panel of young people to identify how their age group would like good causes money from the National Lottery to help them. Having carried out their own research and discovered mental health was one of the top concerns of their peers they helped to develop HeadStart, which has received the support of Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies.

Today’s survey revealed the top concerns to be exams and tests (57 per cent) and family problems such as parents losing their job, splitting up or arguing (31 per cent). The YouGov survey of over 700 children aged 10-14 has also discovered that:

• More than one-in-five (21 per cent) have avoided socialising with friends because they were stressed or worried.

• 75 per cent of children aged 10-14 think that a healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body.

• A quarter are already worrying about choosing a future career.

Only around 25 per cent of young people needing treatment for mental health problems actually receive it and usually only once they reach 181, meaning younger children are missing out on vital support. HeadStart targets the key 10-14 age in a child’s life and will help improve young people’s resilience by giving them the support and skills to cope with adversity.

Working with specially-tasked partnerships in 12 areas, HeadStart will focus primarily on schools through special resilience lessons, helping pupils feel they have support at school as well as at home and tackling the stigma that can often surround the issues of mental health.

Harriet Filmer, 18, knows all about the pressures facing young people. Having been bullied herself and also helping to care for a younger brother with autism, she had plenty of issues to cope with. But she decided to do something positive about it and became involved with a peer mentoring project in her Ashford school, helping other young people to talk through their problems through one-to-one sessions and workshops. The issues were varied, from worries over wearing the right clothes to the day Harriet found herself talking a younger girl round from thoughts of suicide, and helping her fully realize it was time to accept the help that she so needed.

Harriet said: “I don’t think there is anything like the emotional help that is needed for young people who may be suffering without showing the signs. There’s this idea that mental health problems means crazy people in straight-jackets locked up in a cell but it’s nothing like that. More often than not it’s an every-day issue that just snowballs out of control.

“I got involved with school counselling because I wanted to help as many people as possible feel less isolated and alone in all that they are going through and I hope HeadStart will help young people realise that there are people out there who will give them the time and support they need, whatever the problem. If it’s worrying them, it’s something that needs to be sorted out.”

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, said: “We already know that most lifelong mental health problems start to develop by the time a child reaches the age of 14 so it is vital that they are identified and get the support and treatment they need as early as possible.

“The HeadStart programme promises to be a fantastic way of reaching and helping children at risk of developing long term mental health issues and helping more children to grow up happy and healthy.”

Dharmendra Kanani, Big Lottery Fund England Director, said: “These survey results give us a window into what’s going on in the minds of young people. We know more about mental health than ever before, for example the onset of lifelong mental health conditions start before the age of 18 and most poor mental health conditions take grip during our adolescence, especially between the ages of 10-14.

“The Big Lottery Fund is investing £75m to enable children to have a better chance of dealing with the knocks and setbacks in life which many adults take for granted. For many young people, how they feel about themselves; their self-esteem, confidence or negative peer pressure can become deep troubling, take root and lead to crime, self-harm or even suicide. But with the right support and access to help at this key transition stage of our lives we aim to show that young people can be given a HeadStart to lead happier, more fulfilling lives.”

Sarah Brennan, CEO of YoungMinds, said:  “It is desperately sad that in an average classroom, 10 children will have witnessed their parents separate, one will have experienced the death of a parent, and seven will have been bullied and yet there is no single approach to supporting all our children at this key stage in their development. This is why Young Minds are delighted to support the Big Lottery Fund’s HeadStart investment that looks to support the emotional resilience of all participating 10 to 14 year olds and provide targeted early intervention for those children who need more help at this key time in their lives.”

The 12 areas identified are:
Birmingham
Blackpool
Cornwall
Cumbria
Hull
Kent
Knowsley
Lewisham
Middlesbrough
Newham
Southampton
Wolverhampton

For more information on HeadStart please contact the press office on the details below.
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Ask BIG a question here: http://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigLotteryFund #BIGlf
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund
 

Notes to editors

1 - The Centre for Economic Performance’s Mental Health Policy Group, LSE: How Mental Health Illness Loses Out in the NHS (2012).

• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 BIG has awarded close to £6bn.
• The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £30 billion has now been raised and more than 400,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment