Charity demands improvements to mental health services for adolescents

Young people are failing to meet their full potential due to a dearth of mental health services, according to mental health charity Young Minds.

The charity has called for services to specifically meet the needs of young people as they move from adolescence into adulthood. It highlighted services such as counselling; crisis services; and inpatient care as those that need to be available quickly and easily.

It said that evidence shows that young people who are denied access to these sorts of services can suffer mental deterioration, emotional distress and social exclusion.

The charity’s Stressed Out and Struggling (SOS) Project has produced A Call to Action to demand improvements in services, and which lists a series of suggestions on how services can be changed and adapted even in a difficult financial climate.

Barbara Herts, chief executive of Young Minds, said: “This paper demands that those who provide and commission mental health services do so on the basis of what they would want for themselves as a young person or for a member of their own family.”

Young people, she said, deserved to receive the highest level of service as they go through what can often be a difficult period.

More information from www.youngminds.org