Editorial
| Date | 18 June 2018 |
| Published date | 18 June 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-06-2018-073 |
| Pages | 49-50 |
| Author | Woody Caan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Public mental health |
Woody Caan
A“Good Start in Life”can underpin lifelong mental wellbeing. The first JPMH issue of 2019 will be
a special issue, “With children in mind: current research and policy developments on mental
health and young people”, edited by Helen Donovan and Gill Coverdale (31 July 2018 is the
deadline to submit a manuscript for this). In the hope of inspiring readers to make expert,
international contributions to the special issue, I am focusing this editorial on some examples of
current research and policy, in this country.
In this journal, the nature and promotion of resilience has been a frequent theme (e.g. Caan,
2016). I am indebted to the Association for Young People’s Health (2016) for their youth
perspectives on resilience. This year, mental health promotion figured in several contributions to
the 10th Anniversary Conference of the Association for Young People’s Health in London on
21 February 2018. Research presentatio ns on the StreetGames national sport pi lots
and the Redthread violence intervention by youth workers were especially impressive.
This inter-disciplinary meeting took place against the current policy background of a
“green paper”for England on Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health
Provision (Department of Health and Department for Education, 2017). A consultation on this
cross-departmental policy is still underway as I write this, but will finish shortly (Hunt, 2018).
Readers from many countries will relate to current problems in England, around under-funding of
care for the population with mental illness (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2018). Here, increased
demand for clinical careis predicted to rise by about a million persons per decade (Caan, 2017).
Only widespread social policy interventions to address the determinants of mental health can
prevent such a tide of misery (and prevent services being overwhelmed). One possible area for
policy innovationwas shown by a book launch on 8 February 2018in Parliament. This book was a
comprehensivereport on Addressing Adversity (Bush, 2018).Adversity can take many forms, but
cumulative childhood adversity becomes a strong predictor of developing mental illness. Bush
(2018) identifies eight personal, structural and environmental factors that protect against mental
problems, for example“access to a wider, supportive and understanding community”.For school
age children, their schoo l “community”is a good starting point for prevention. In theory, mental
wellbeing should be covered in schools during personal, social, health and economic education
(PSHE) sessions. However, in most English schools the educational “reforms”have fractured the
system and currently PSHE is neither mandatory nor quality assured.
I am most grateful to the Westminster Education Forum, for their seminar held on 8 February
2018 in London: “Preparing for implementing compulsory relationships and sex education in
schools”. In particular I liked the expression of one speaker, the Teacher Laura Foley, that staff
need to be trained for “purposeful PSHE”. Overall, there was a consensus that thriving in
childhood was built on a variety of positive relationships. Effective PSHE needed to link with
safeguarding duties (protecting vulnerable children) and school nursing (healthcare) roles. This
made co-ordinated workforce planning necessary, across both education and health sectors
(see Merrifield, 2018). There was a need to recognise both current adversity (like bullying) and
also that some children had previously experienced traumatic events. To develop better
community practice would, of course, require the inclusion of young people and parents!
For some adults including parents, it is difficult to see with a young person’s perspective, but at
present in the UK, many adolescents report being victimized over their appearance (Siddique,
2018). In our era of mass communication and online bullying, social policy needs to address
problems around body image (and vulnerable self-esteem) across the young population.
In addressing adversity, resilience refers to patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant
risk or adversity (Ungar, 2018). It seems that the local context can influence the elements that build
up resilience. This week I took part in a training event for improved community resilience, around the
DOI 10.1108/JPMH-06-2018-073 VOL. 17 NO. 2 2018, pp. 49-50, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729
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Editorial
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