17 February 2000
Dear Sir
If we are to promote good mental health in the adults of tomorrow then we need to invest in the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people. This is something of which we all need to be aware - parents, teachers, doctors, aunts and uncles.
Nowhere is this better illustrated than on the reports in today's Mail (17 February 2000) on the 20 per cent of children experiencing high levels of anxiety (Lifestyles that leave children so anxious they need treatment p. 23) and the 13-year-old girl who has been given a bodyguard at school following prolonged bullying (The Bodyguard, p 27).
The Mental Health Foundation's recent report, Bright Futures - the result of a two-year Inquiry into the mental health of children and young people - called for the Government to put children's mental health centre-stage together with their physical and academic achievement. We know that this will only happen if there is greater support for parents, appropriate work in schools, and a better understanding across all services of the mental health needs of children and young people.
How wasteful that we continue to be shocked by such stories but not act upon them as a society?
Yours faithfully.
Ruth Lesirge
Director, Mental Health Foundation
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