The UK's New Youth Mental Health Ambassador

Are we talking enough about youth mental health?

The past twelve months haven’t been easy for any of us. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work and go about our day, driven our friendships online and introduced a whole host of new health problems to be concerned about. So, it’s no wonder that mental health has suffered on a global scale, because let’s face it — who isn’t worried at the moment?  

And it seems like, although they’ve been cracking on with online schooling and adapting to their changing social lives, young people are feeling the effects of the pandemic too. A follow-up study to the 2017 Mental Health of Children and Young People project found that there had been an increase of 5.2% in probable mental health problems in children in 2020.  

• More than a quarter of children and young people reported disturbed sleep. 
• 10% of children and young people admitted feeling lonely. 
• 18% of children and young people with probable mental health problems were afraid to go outside due to Covid-19. 
• 21.6% of children and 29% of young people felt that there was no adult to which they could turn to during a national lockdown. 
• 10% reported worrying that their family did not have enough to eat and/or were using food banks. 

Based on this data, youth mental health appears to be suffering in quite an alarming way. To combat this, the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has appointed Dr. Alex George at the UK’s new Youth Mental Health Ambassador.  

Dr. Alex is an A&E doctor, and a passionate advocate on social media for children’s mental health. As Youth Mental Health Ambassador, he’ll be using his experience and his expertise to direct the government’s focus on mental health and create support policies that really work for young people in education. He’ll also be sitting on the Mental Health in Education Action Group panel, looking at how to keep children's emotional wellbeing at the heart of the classroom return happening later this year.  

You can catch up with one of Dr. Alex’s discussions with the PM on YouTube. If you’re worried about a child or a young person’s mental health, there’s also help and advice available at Mind.