How we talk about children’s mental health is crucial to improving it

At what age does mental health start?

It’s a question that’s come into the spotlight recently with the news that children as young as 6 are going to A&E in mental health crisis.

And how people answer that question, plays a key role in how we think about children’s mental health and what we can do about it.

Unhelpful criticisms of younger generations are regularly recycled across the headlines, and last week, Prof Peter Fonagy – author of the independent review of children’s mental health – reminded us of the very real challenges faced by young people today, from economic and employment uncertainty, to the pressures of social media.

Rightly, there are urgent calls for support to be better, for all children to get the help they need, and early. And that must be a priority. But we also need to talk about what is driving our children to experience poor mental health in the first place.

A report by Centre for Mental Health has added yet more evidence to show that the place and circumstances that children live, and grow-up in, have profound effects in shaping their mental health. From whether children have a secure home and access to green space, to whether their family has enough to make ends meet, it is these building blocks of mental health that we need to urgently work to strengthen.

However, our new research found that there are some major barriers in how people think about children’s mental health that are holding back the action we so desperately need.

Firstly, people assume that babies are born blank slates and that mental health doesn’t begin until children are old enough to talk about how they feel. This might be, people reasoned, at around age 6, 7, 8 or even 9. The understanding that babies, toddlers and young children can experience stress, anxiety and distress isn’t what comes to mind when we think about children’s mental health.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, people who more strongly held the mindset that babies are born as blank slates were less likely to support policies aimed at improving children’s mental health. As, according to this logic, if children don’t have mental health, then action to address it seems redundant.

Secondly, people assume that when we’re talking about mental health, we’re talking about mental health problems. The idea that there is such a thing as good mental health and that we can take action to create and protect it is missing from view. But, we know that we don’t need to wait for mental health challenges to occur before we act. By putting in place the foundations for good mental health, we can help all children to live healthier, happier lives.

Thirdly, people assume that a child’s mental health is completely down to the relationships in their lives, particularly with their parents. That mental health is exclusively the result of the quality of their relationships and that if they are loved and cared for, that love will help them overcome any challenges.

And whilst we know those relationships are vital, when they entirely overshadow any understanding of how a child’s surroundings and circumstances shape their mental health – from whether they have a secure home to whether their family has enough to make ends meet – this way of thinking can act as a barrier to building the changes we so desperately need.

How we talk about children’s mental health can unlock a different understanding from the public and politicians alike.  Because our choice of language can help us bypass these challenging assumptions and force our focus to where it needs to be: on preventing children from experiencing this distress in the first place.

To do this we need to show what good mental health is, and enables children to do, and explain how children’s surroundings shape their mental health. For example, explaining how having a secure home means that a child has a safe space to put down roots. Which means that they are not constantly worrying about where they are going to sleep, leading to reduced stress and improved mental health.

When people start to see that a child’s surroundings play a significant role in shaping their mental health, it makes them more likely to support the kinds of policy changes needed to improve children’s mental health before challenges occur. Building this understanding must be a core component of all future communications and campaigns.

To ensure children get the help they need now, and, vitally, that fewer children need this help in the future, we must rethink how we talk about mental health.