A mental health crisis amongst young people is a like tidal wave hitting day-after-day, the chief executive of the Young Devon charity has told North Devon councillors.
Andy Moreman said the organisation offers more support for young people where it could, but it is like ‘trying to hold back the sea’.
Last year Young Devon, which helps with wellbeing, skills development, housing and counselling, supported 5,000 people. But it says the job was ‘huge and challenging’.
‘A lack of hope in a more positive future’
Speaking to North Devon Council’s policy development committee, Mr Moreman said young people are telling the charity they are consistently anxious and some are not able to leave their bedrooms.
He said: “Absenteeism in school, college and in the workplace is massive and much of it is linked to anxiety and mental health issues.
“We are hearing young people express a lack of aspiration for the future and a lack of hope in a more positive future. It cripples me to say that self-harm is massively on the increase and we have the worst social mobility in the country.”
He said on top of this, services for young people had been decimated during the austerity years.
‘the key to a good quality of life’
Young Devon supports people to build good relationships which Mr Moreman said is ‘the key to a good quality of life’.
The Youth Enquiry Services (YES) it runs in Barnstaple has had hundreds of visitors since it reopened last year, he said.
The charity is about to start a new wellbeing contract across Devon, working with partners to deliver counselling, mental health youth work and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
And it provides housing for 110 people every night which could be short-term or long-term and supported lodgings for children and young people who have been through the care system.
The charity also offers post-16 education in maths and English and supports children from the age of four who have been victims of crime and domestic abuse.
Mr Moreman said he had been encouraged by a recent survey by Young Devon in schools which put places to go and things to do as the number one issue, not mental health, which had been in the top position for years.
Children say they want somewhere to be with their friends and with other people and are choosing in-person meetings instead of remote ones with charity workers.
‘screen-based childhoods’
Councillors agreed that providing more activities for children and young people would distract them from their mobile phones, which Mr Moreman claims is the reason so many children experience mental health issues.
He said ‘screen-based childhoods’ caused young people to be constantly interrupted and led to poorly nurtured relationships.
He added: “When you are hit by up to 200 social media posts a day, most of which are not positive or nourishing, but detrimental, their brains cannot cope with it.
“They are not evolutionarily adapted to the childhood we are giving them. They are not doing the things needed for healthy brain development. We are seeing something we have never seen before.”
‘Until something changes there will continue to be poor mental health’
His believes children should not have smart phones until the age of 14 and social media until at least 16.
“Until something changes there will continue to be poor mental health, a massive rise in misogyny and self-harm and violence against women and girls as that is what children are being fed online,” he said.
Councillor Matthew Bushell urged the charity’s chief executive to come to South Molton’s Skate Molton, an initiative which started in the pannier market and now had its own site. And he said the scout group is popular with young people.
Mr Moreman said there is a need for post-16 education in North Devon as young people currently had to travel to Exeter and are ‘exhausted’ by the time they got home.
He told councillors that financially the charity, which gets support from Devon County Council and Plymouth City Council amongst others, is in a good position, but the employers’ national insurance rise would cost £100,000.
“That’s 110 fewer young people who will get counselling in Devon because we have to pay national insurance to rebuild the public sector,” he said.