3: Downstream Strategies

Mental illness is the downstream side of unaddressed psychological distress endured by young people. It accounts for the second biggest threat to social and economic stability after cardiovascular disease (WHO, 2005). During the pandemic, Gregory (2020) reported on the likely need for sustained mental health support for people, including young people, to recover from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Among 44% of people in one study feeling that they had suffered during lockdown, the majority (93%) reported anxiety and depression (Allington & Duffy, 2020).

In the United Kingdom, NHS Digital (2020) highlighted that one in six children and young people have mental health problems. This compares to only one in nine in 2017. According to the World Health Organization (2003) in any year around 20% of adolescents experience mental health problems. Worse still, 70% of children and adolescents experiencing mental health problems do not get help early enough, that is, upstream. The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS, 2020) found that more than half of all students at university (57%) reported a worsening in their mental health and wellbeing since the beginning of the autumn term in September 2020. While the figure here and NHS Digital (2020) statistics may relate to the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns, such figures are concerning. Indeed, most recently, UNICEF (2021) reported that one in five young people (15–24 year-olds) around the world say they often feel depressed. This is also underlined in a recent study from the UCL COVID-19 Social Study that depression rose significantly over the Christmas 2021 period in the United Kingdom, mirroring similar levels at the start of the pandemic lockdown (Fancourt et al., 2022). More recently, the Nuffield Trust reported 337,000 referrals of children and young people to mental health services between April and September 2021, an 81% increase compared to 2019 (Nuffield Trust, 2022).