rastijobs

The ‘dramatic’ increase in anxiety among children (NHS referrals for anxiety in children more than double pre-Covid, 27 August) deserves a more complex response than installing counselors in every school, useful though it may be in some cases, and I say this as a mental health professional – consultant clinical psychologist.

Well-meaning awareness campaigns that encourage us to translate every emotion into a “mental health problem” convey the message that children have personality deficits, while obscuring the reasons for their distress. And yet research consistently shows that their feelings are understandable in context.

Your article mentions pressure from targeted education, cyberbullying, poverty and uncertainty about the future. None of this will be solved by funding extra mental health staff, helplines and support centres. Indeed, it is likely to perpetuate the cycle, as these are not fundamentally medical problems – they are social.

It is particularly disappointing to see the Labor Party not accepting this obvious connection. Do we need to get to the point where every child is on the clinic waiting list before we take appropriate action on the root causes?
Dr Lucy Johnstone
Bristol

As a clinical psychologist, and like anyone who interacts with young people, I have seen anxiety rates rise. But it is important not to mean the pathology of youth further, only to focus on increasing crisis treatment.

It’s actually paying people like me to be an even more expensive band-aid. I would argue that much of what is happening is not a mental health crisis, but an empowerment crisis. No matter what age, people can cope with incredibly stressful things if they know they have the resources and social support to deal with them.

Young people feel disempowered; they are aware of stress and danger in the world, but do not feel they are being listened to or given tools to deal with that stress. Most people don’t need more from me; they need more focus on community, fun, support, connection and engagement much earlier.
Dr. Helen Care
Woodstock, Oxfordshire

That British children and young people are suffering from significantly higher rates of anxiety and unhappiness is deeply concerning. Several plausible reasons have been suggested, but I believe may have been overlooked. There is a trend in ultra-gentle parenting where children are offered a lot of comfort for the emotions that each trauma causes. I realize that my large group of grandchildren is still a tiny sample, but by far the happiest and least anxious of them are the ones who have learned that not all of their negative feelings can be soothed and resolved by others. The support of loving parents is of course invaluable, but learning resilience is also important.
Name and address provided

In 1991 I started working in a large comprehensive school in London and immediately felt the impact of the Thatcher/Major years on our students. Children lived in poverty and deprivation, with very little support from social services and this affected their mental health. We made almost as many emergency room calls for mental health reasons as we did for playground injuries. Within the first two years of the Labor government from 1997, things quickly improved, with more support for schools and families. Unfortunately, history is repeating itself for Keir Starmer now.
Linda Karlsen
Whitstable, Kent