Harrogate charity warns young people’s mental health crisis reaching ‘epidemic proportions’

A Harrogate charity has warned young people are facing a mental health crisis of “epidemic proportions”.

Wellspring Therapy and Training, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in November, offers affordable counselling to local people.

The charity said it faced the highest demand ever for services from young people.

Emily Fullarton, Wellspring’s executive director, said:

“There are a number of reasons, some interlinked, for this increase in demand.

“The pandemic is one, of course, as is the relentless pressure of social media and exams.

“The cost-of-living crisis has meant that many families are struggling to make ends meet and this has a knock-on effect on family dynamics and the atmosphere at home.”

Just over a third of children with a diagnosable mental health condition receive NHS treatment.

Fullarton commented:

“If this was the case for child cancer treatment there would be outrage.

“As suicide is the leading cause of death after cancer and accidental injury in children and young people, we should be taking this statistic far more seriously.”

The charity has found it difficult to increase the number of sessions on offer because of staff and funding shortages.

However, Wellspring plans to double the number of available sessions by starting a professional training course next year.

Counsellors on the course will learn how to specialise their services for young people.

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Wellspring was founded in 2003 and operates in Starbeck.

The weekly session fee depends on how much you can afford.

Wellspring executive director Emily Fullarton with patron Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds.

Information on applying for counselling at Wellspring can also be found on their website.

If you are going through a hard time, you can call Samaritans for free 24 hours a day on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org.

Children going through a difficult time can call Childline for free on 0800 1111.

Harrogate boy cuts off hair to fundraise for children’s mental health service

A local boy has cut his hair as part of a fundraiser for a mental health charity.

9-year-old Felix cut off his long hair earlier this week to help raise money for Mind in Harrogate District.

The fundraiser was set up by his family in May and aims to raise enough for a new mental health service for local children.

It aims to raise £10,000 and was launched in memory of Felix’s much-loved great uncle, Dave Keeton.

Mr Keeton took his own life in April this year. He was an educational psychologist, who worked with children and young people for most of his life, so the family felt that it was fitting to raise money for services directly supporting them.

According to Tina Chamberlain, CEO of Mind in Harrogate, 72% of young people in Harrogate District have experienced mental health issues since the pandemic.

She told The Stray Ferret:

“The lack of essential mental health services for young people means that when they eventually pluck up the courage to seek help there is often a lack of adequate support and long waiting lists.”

On their Just Giving page, the family added:

“Opportunities for young people to meet and build relationships face-to-face have disappeared as youth centres and swimming pools have closed, fuelling an epidemic of loneliness.”

The new proposed support service will attempt to alleviate this problem. It will integrate programmes like Drawing and Talking as well as support groups for issues like post-covid anxiety.

The family hope this will provide an effective way for children and young people to process emotional pain or trauma.

In the last week, the fundraiser has seen a huge boost thanks to Felix’s haircutting event generating an extra £2,500 in donations. It is now only a few hundred pounds away from reaching its £10k target.

Felix’s Grandfather, John Barnes told The Stray Ferret:

“The event has worked wonders to raise money and awareness of the issue. Our fundraiser is now well ahead of target thanks to Felix and we’ll be asking him for more creative ideas”

Felix’s mother Suzannah Hepworth commented:

“I am hugely proud of Felix. We were totally blown away by his decision to voluntarily sacrifice his hair as it’s is such a big thing for a nine-year-old to do”

“Felix’s hair is a huge part of his look and his vibe, so to him, cutting it is the biggest sacrifice he could’ve made to show how much he cares and get people to donate”

If you would like to donate or find out more please click the link to the fundraiser here.

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Calls for action over ‘overwhelmed’ North Yorkshire children’s mental health services

Children’s community mental health services need a root and branch review, officials in North Yorkshire have said.

North Yorkshire County Council’s director of children and young people’s services Stuart Carlton, said ongoing concerns over a lack of available support had been highlighted to the Department for Education.

It comes amid concerns the strategy to deal with a post-pandemic surge in youngsters requiring support is grossly inadequate.

Mr Carlton said increasing the amount of help for children with mental health issues ranked alongside child exploitation and online safety as the most significant challenges his colleagues were facing.

He was speaking at a meeting of the authority’s children and young people’s scrutiny committee a year after the NHS announced it was rapidly expanding children’s mental health services to offer support teams in schools to almost three million pupils by 2023.

At the time, the NHS said by intervening in mental health issues early it was hoped to prevent problems escalating into serious concerns.

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Earlier this year the committee heard mental health services for children in the county and elsewhere were struggling to cope with an “exponential growth in demand” due to the isolation and upheaval of the pandemic, compounded by factors like pressure experienced by children on social media platforms.

In February, Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust bosses told the scrutiny meeting its community-based mental health team (CAMHS) was treating more than 2,500 children across the county.

They said referrals to its services for issues such as eating disorders had risen from about 100 a month at start of pandemic to more than 300 a month during 2021.

18-month waiting list

Four months on, a youth support worker told the committee the waiting list for CAMHS had risen to 18 months, which was not a sufficiently timely reaction to what children needed.

She said: 

“The biggest challenge we face on the ground is mental health. I cannot overestimate how challenging it is. Pretty much all the young people we work with have some element of mental ill health.”

When asked about a timeframe for getting mental health support teams into schools, Mr Carlton said the authority had told government officials the scheme was too being implemented too slowly and the ambition needed to be to get mental health teams available for all schools.

He added: 

“I just don’t see how that’s going to happen. I have called nationally for a fundamental CAMHS review because it is not working. It needs significant funding and significant review and enacting clearly across the whole of the country.”

Mr Carlton said the authority was providing support to schools through mental heath training while working with North Yorkshire NHS bosses to reassess what was needed from the service and how it could be modernised.

He said there had been promising collaborative work with the NHS, but financing extra support for children would be “very challenging”.

Mr Carlton said:

“We can see through the pandemic increased demand. The services are probably feeling a bit overwhelmed and overstretched and it’s an area of absolute focus.

“Any interaction with a child from a professional is a mental health opportunity. However, we need enough capacity for specialist support when it is required.”