Mental health problems. They don’t happen to people like us, do they? It’s only old people, the psycho’s and nutters. Right?

Wrong- here are some facts and figures which may surprise you.

There is a general agreement amongst researchers that at any one time at least 10% of children and young people suffer from behavioural and emotional problems (mental health problems). That’s 10 people in every 100. These problems can show themselves as anxiety, depression, stress, eating disorders, aggressive behaviours and phobias amongst other things. However these estimates are affected by definitions of ‘mental health’ and also by under- reporting of problems by young people. It is suggested the actual number of children and young people suffering from mental health problems is nearer 20% - that’s 20 people out of every 100. So if you have a group of five friends it is quite likely that one of them will have some kind of mental health problem.

Even given the underestimate of 10 %, in a primary school with 250 pupils:

In a Secondary School with 1000 pupils:

So in Rotherham, where there are approximately 21,000 pupils in Primary schools and 18,000 pupils in Secondary schools that would mean that makes

So you can see mental health problems are common. They can affect anyone, at anytime, in anyplace. It isn’t something to be ashamed about, neither is it something to make fun of.