The importance of well-being in children and young people
| Pages | 93-95 |
| Date | 18 September 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-07-2017-0025 |
| Published date | 18 September 2017 |
| Author | Gill Coverdale |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Public mental health |
Gill Coverdale
The importance of well-being in children and young people
It is some years ago that, while still in clinical practice as a School Nurse and Primary Care Group
Nurse Board Member, I was able to pursue my passion for meeting the needs of young people
within the community I worked. Following a piece of stakeholder engagement and research,
I was able to lead, with service users, the development and implementation of a walk in advice
service for the young people in the local area. We called this WACY (the name the young people
it was serving decided was the best and most appropriate). What was most exciting was that
it was a service designed by the young people it was to serve and it was multi-professional in its
delivery. We were able to engage the local GPs and practice nurses; school nurses and health
visitors; social services team; the fabulous local community psychiatric nurses; the educational
psychologist; the local police constable and, most of all, the wonderful youth workers. The clinic
ran weekly at the local health centre, and we had a rota for all the professionals involved.
The weekly sessions always had the school nurse and the youth worker and then a combination
of two professionals from the rest of the multi-professional team. We always had access to
one of the local GPs and an arrangement that any young person could be referred to that GP
(a big step in a complex arrangement of GP provision). I am pleased to say that we always had
clients, although one would like to think no-one needed us!
Why am I talking about this, in my first editorial? Well, we expected that most of our “walk ins”
would be sexual health related, however, what we had more than anything else, were
behavioural and social issues which were resulting in emotional and mental ill health and
distress. Fortun ately, most of these c ame to us at a stage before c rises, and we were abl e,
for most of the time, t o either make an urgent referra l to our CAMHs’colleagues,or “head off at
the pass”a serious breakdow n in mental health, due to the mu lti-professional exper tise we had
at our disposal.
I naively thought that almost two decades on, services like the one I describe above would be
mainstream and we would be in a position where early intervention was the norm. Sadly, almost
20 years later research by the Children’s Society (2017), shows that a significant minority of
children in the UK have low levels of well-being, which they argue has the devastating potential to
have a severe impact on their childhood and life chances, as well as on the families and
communities around them.
What is a relief is that there appears to have been a resurgence in public interest in mental health,
which has been placed in the spotlight by the Royal Princes Harry and William’s openness on the
impact of their bereavement following the sudden and tragic death of their mother Princess Diana
20 years ago in August. They have talked candidly of the subsequent impact on their mental
health and well-being.
Personally I prefer the term mental wealth and emphasising the positive aspect of mental health
and also the importance of emotional well-being. My own doctoral research exploring the
promotion of emotional well-being lays testament to this interest (Coverdale and Long, 2015).
In the policy spotlight too, especially in the run up to the general election, MPs were calling for
school children to have more time for the promotion of well-being (WiredGov, 2017). However,
in spite of this fundamental right, the findings from the joint inquiry into children and young
people’s mental health, the health and education committees found that financial pressures are
restricting the provision of mental health services in schools and colleges. They cite that there is
little time, resource or opportunity to support emotional and mental well-being in schools
DOI 10.1108/JPMH-07-2017-0025 VOL. 16 NO. 3 2017, pp. 93-95, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729
j
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC MENTALHEALTH
j
PAG E 93
Editorial
To continue reading
Request your trial