A poll of 500 secondary school pupils, for the teenage mental health charity stem4 found that 79% of children as young as 12 and 13 now experience emotional distress after starting secondary school. Top of the list of anxieties is exam worries (41% of pupils), followed by work overload (31%), friendship concerns (28%), worries about being accepted by peers (23%), lack of confidence (26%), concerns about body image (26%), low self-esteem (15%) and feelings of being overwhelmed (25%). By the age of 16, one in 10 young people will be diagnosed with a mental health problem. Yet research by the Royal College of Psychiatrists shows that 25 clinical commissioning groups in England, which decide how money is spent on health, planned to spend less than Ā£25 per head on mental health services for children and young people in this financial year, and some areas were spending as little as Ā£2 a head.
Rachel Ellis, 'Mental health problems rife among teenagers but teachers lack skills to help', The Guardian
