Children’s Mental Health

The Children’s Foundation are aware that there is a vital need within the North East to provide interventions in areas of child health that are currently under represented. Therefore, one of our main focuses for 2011 is to work towards improving the mental health of children & young people, making small but effective improvements at ground level, which will benefit people of all ages and backgrounds.

Mental health problems present themselves in different ways at different ages so it is important people are made aware of this and know what to look out for. By improving mental health and public understanding & knowledge around this subject we believe it will have a positive impact on communities as a whole, in terms of employment, safety and crime reduction, homelessness etc.

Below are a few statistics to summarise what we are dealing with as a society :

At least one in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their life
One in ten children aged between 5-16 has a mental health problem
Half of those with lifetime mental health problems first experience symptoms by the age of 14 and three –quarters before their mid -20’s
About one in 100 people has a severe mental health problem
Self harming in young people is not uncommon(10-13% of 15-16 year olds have self harmed)

The Children’s Foundation still supports children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through Daslⁿe. The project provides support for families by giving them help and advice around the difficult issue they face with their child, such as eating, sleeping and anxiety as well as providing information about local services and support groups which are available.

We are delighted to report that database Daslⁿe which was officially launched in October 2003 now has information on 900+ children and young people with ASD. This information can then be utilised by service’s and voluntary organisations to plan ahead and provide high quality support to children with ASD and their families .

Currently the Daslⁿe team are carrying out a survey of young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder approaching transition to adult services.

For more information on Daslⁿe and the service they provide please visit their website : Daslne