Improved well-being increases educational attendance, behaviour and attainment.

A substantial body of evidence exists which suggests that approximately 1 in 10 children and young people in the UK have a diagnosed mental health problem. Despite this significant proportion, it is stated mental health issues are more likely to be missed in young people than in any other age group.

Not only does this have immediate consequences and implications, the period of adolescence and early adulthood is one in which individuals are highly susceptible to the development of mental health issues. Specifically, it is estimated that 75% of mental illness in adult life (excluding dementia) starts in adolescence, where reluctance to use mental health services is also at its peak. This leads to many young people not receiving any clinical intervention.

Unidentified and untreated mental health issues in children and young people can have devastating and costly consequences, to name a few:

• worse physical health in both the short-term and long-term
• poorer health behaviours: in particular misuse of alcohol, smoking, and substance use
• poor social, educational and employment outcomes

Early Intervention is Vital

You have the opportunity to invest in early intervention and preventative therapeutic support for the children and young people in your education setting, not only reducing the impact of mental ill-health or poor emotional well-being, but reducing inequalities and improving attendance and performance figures, improving the severity and regularity of classroom disruption, and improving staff morale.

The change in the children and young people accessing therapeutic support and counselling services, monitored using the SDQ (Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire) and CORE Outcome data collected throughout the therapy, indicates that children and young people are better able to cope with issues that are challenging their emotional well-being and mental health after accessing our services.

For further information regarding our impact measurement please click here for our 2020 Annual Report.

To contact YCT to discuss how we can help in your setting, please call on 01279 414090 or by email at admin@yctsupport.com.