Young people crushed by a million pressures – YoungMinds
Charity unveils art installation at Kings Cross to draw attention to third year running in which more than 1m young people are referred to child mental services.
A striking artwork depicting a young person crushed under the weight of numerous burdens has been unveiled at Kings Cross station in London as part of leading mental health charity YoungMinds’ efforts to raise awareness of a crisis facing young people across the UK.
The art installation at Kings Cross station, photo courtesy of YoungMinds.
New NHS Digital Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics released this week show, unfortunately, that it’s been another record-breaking year for numbers of children being referred to mental health services – with 1,296,244 referrals in the school year 2023-24, compared to just 759,772 in 2018-19. That’s a 71% in five years.
But YoungMinds has also shared the results of a survey of 1,005 primary and secondary schoolteachers across the UK, conducted by Censuswide. Some 46% of respondents believe that child and mental health services (CAMHS) are not fit for purpose. Teachers blame the rise in pupil’s mental health on a range of issues, the top three being family problems (68%), bullying (66%) and social media (63%).
Censuswide is a member of The British Polling Council and abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society, which is based on the ESOMAR principles.
To raise awareness of the mounting problem, YoungMinds worked with youth specialist consultancy and creative studio Livity to produce the artwork. More than a thousand young people worked directly with the charity, sharing some of the pressures they face, including the housing crisis, discrimination, poverty, academic pressure and social media.
The installation invites members of the public to examine these pressures in more detail – and demonstrate that young people need not face them alone. Underneath the pressures is a statue of a defiant and hopeful young person – who just needs some help to emerge.
In addition to commissioning the installation and sharing the results of the survey, the charity has launched a petition addressed to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and calling on the government to make the changes that young people need.
Samara, a YoungMinds Activist, says: ‘I’ve seen many young people, including myself, struggle to get the help they need due to a shortage of trained professionals and fragmented services. Stigma around mental health also prevents early intervention, and there’s not enough support in schools. The system feels overwhelmed, and urgent cases often don’t get the attention they deserve in time, where often they have already reached crisis point as a result.’
Laura Bunt, Chief Executive of YoungMinds, says: ‘Mental health is one of the biggest issues impacting young people’s lives today. Whilst the numbers in need of support have been spiralling, the people in charge of making things better have fallen short. With over a million new referrals each academic year for the past three years, it’s clear tweaks to the system will no longer work.
‘We cannot look to one thing to blame for this crisis – young people are being crushed by a million pressures. From the cost-of-living to the climate crisis, from global insecurity to social media, from academic pressure to worries about the future, these pressures are taking their toll on the mental health of a whole generation. And right now, it feels like they are facing this alone. We want everyone to care about young people’s mental health and also show that underneath those pressures, there is hope, defiance and power.
‘We also need clear action from the Government and bold solutions that really impact young people’s lives. The Prime Minister must earn back young people’s trust by fulfilling his promise to roll out open access early support hubs across the country. We also want a commitment to tackle the problems impacting young people before they begin and put their voices at the heart of the policies that affect them. Real change takes bravery but the costs for inaction are too high – these terrifying figures must not be ignored.’
Read more about the Crushed by a million pressures campaign.
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