Is age just a number? Exploring the link between mental health and life stages
50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24.
If these statistics from the Mental Health Foundation surprise you — here’s another: 70% of children and young people experiencing mental health problems have not had appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age. Why does this matter and what can we do about it? It’s time to dig into the topic of life stages.
Next time 👉 A new way: transdiagnostic approaches in mental health
If you just landed here — this article is part of a ten-part series providing bite-sized expert insights on mental health topics (from world-class speakers via Zinc) and my thoughts on the role tech can play in addressing these themes. All smart ideas come from the speakers and my peers — all poor phrasings and misunderstandings are my own.
What you’ll learn from this article 🧠
This week’s speaker was Andy Bell, Deputy Chief Executive of the Centre for Mental Health. The big ideas were around the key opportunities across life stages to intervene for better mental health, and some of the proven interventions that exist for each stage. Our discussion focused on the resources and support required to put such interventions in place, and a case study around low uptake of maternal mental health interventions. Technology thoughts include challenging the narrative around social media as a harm in younger years and the potential for technology to connect and support during key ‘transitions’ like the menopause.
The big ideas 💡
- There are missed opportunities across life stages to support individuals’ mental health. It takes an average of 10 years between young people experiencing their first symptoms of poor mental health and receiving health. Key stages are 1) pregnancy and infancy: only 10% of women with post-natal depression get evidence-based treatment, 2) early years: where healthy parenting styles such as a warm relationship, sensitive parenting and consistent boundary-setting make a big difference to childrens’ mental health, 3) school years: 20% of children have persistent behavioural problems and 6% have conduct disorder at a lifetime cost of £250,000 per child and 4) transitions into adult life: where poor mental health rises in line with multiple transitions — education, work, health, justice & social services — but also sees the lowest levels of help-seeking and distrust of formal services
- There are proven interventions and approaches at each life stage. For example, for young adults, informal approaches and co-production can help, together with social action and system change as we know youth unemployment can have a ‘scarring’ effect. In early years, we know schools can be a source of both support and challenge. Promoting wellbeing requires a whole school and trauma-informed approach to mental health, ideally with students having an active role in their learning. However, schools are often hamstrung by funding constraints, low levels of wellbeing among staff, hidden inequalities within and between schools and inconsistent or limited national guidance
Discussion points 🗪
- Are we asking too much of teachers, and the education system, in adding mental health to an already packed set of requirements? Teachers hear and know the problems within schools, and there are many schemes in place to recruit and employ teachers but there is less of a focus on retaining them. Teachers are increasingly burnt out: improving staff wellbeing could be the most effective first step a school takes to improve student mental health. There are parallels with other sectors: e.g. prison staff working in stressful, frightening circumstances or clinicians. This is why a ‘whole school’ approach is so important, as it shifts the culture, with some schools making wellbeing their core ethos
- What drives the low uptake in mental health services for new mothers? Part of the problem is that there are siloed teams (e.g. health visitors, midwives) many of whom may feel underqualified to have a conversation around mental health. When asked why they haven’t sought help, postnatal women talked about a lack of a safe space to disclose their concerns. Talking about mental health could either result in dismissal (‘it’s just baby blues’) or alternatively not knowing how to react and making it a bigger deal than it needs to be. The key is kind and empathetic conversation with the right level of concern
Technology thoughts 💻
- There is little clear evidence of harm to mental health from social media interaction — despite many headlines claiming the opposite — and less consideration of the potential for benefit. However there is some evidence of impact on sleep, which is a key contributor to physical and mental health. Interestingly, in a survey run by two of our cohort, we found that whilst adults were likely to see social media as a key contributor to poor mental health in adolescents, school-age children were far more likely to cite schools and exams as a cause of stress than social media.
- ‘Transition points’ are a key opportunity for support which have gained increased interest from tech companies. For example, Peppy provide easy access to specialists during big moments typically not covered by employee benefit plans (e.g. new parents, menopause). Menopause in particular is seeing a rise in investor interest — currently over a third of women going to their GP with symptoms of the menopause are being offered antidepressants, with 80% seeing this as inappropriate for their symptoms. Bia Care allows women to access a holistic range of specialists and connect with each other as they go through the menopause journey.
Reading list 📚
Speaker bio 🔈
- Andy Bell is Deputy Chief Executive of the Centre for Mental Health, leading its impressive body of research and publications. Andy is an accomplished author and speaker on mental health and one of the UK’s leading mental health policy analysts.
