‘Catch it early, catch it upstream’. When it comes to mental health issues in children, this phrase holds greater resonance. Historically, mental health issues have been tackled reactively as they emerge in individuals and communities, but we need to refocus our attention to early intervention as a critical part of the solution. As we face a bleak landscape of distress and rising levels of inequality and trauma affecting millions of children, now is the time to prioritise conscious prevention over retrospective inadequate action.

Faced with the fact that 50 percent of adults with a mental health difficulty start experiencing symptoms by the age of 14, it is clear that early and targeted intervention is crucial to minimising these issues before they take hold.

What we know for sure is that a young person’s formative years are integral to their future. Greater stress in early childhood can infringe on the sensitivity and vulnerability of early brain development and risk life-long effects in terms of relationship building, academic achievements and behavioral patterns. In research commissioned by BBC Children in Need, experts from across clinical services, voluntary and education sectors agreed on the importance of supporting mental health, specifically in the 8-13 age group since 2019.

Why is this age group critical? We know that during this critical stage in life when children transition from primary to secondary school, this progression is life-changing but it can also be destabilising and traumatic. Quite often, children are moving from a sheltered, smaller primary school where relationships have been established over a long period of time, to being thrust into huge and impersonal secondary schools where they are expected to sink or swim. Therefore, this is the critical age group, when they are increasingly susceptible to mental health issues manifesting.

What we also know is, not one size fits all. Within this age group, children are exposed to varying severities of risk factors including poverty, disability, discrimination or trauma. Time is what really sets the early intervention model apart from more reactive measures. The method allows practitioners to take a step back and consider an intervention specific to an illness stage. Additionally, the targeted nature of the approach takes into account the sociodemographic or health related risk factors specific to an individual faces and crafts an individualistic approach, which is both preventative as well as effective.

For instance, there is a clear intersection between poverty and mental health. Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the UK struggles with significant and growing levels of poverty with an estimated 4.3 million children and young people living in destitution. This rising cost of living has pushed families to the brink, forcing them to choose between heating the house or putting food on the table; it is impossible to overestimate how much poverty influences the problems facing households today.

It is also important to consider that some groups are more likely to experience poverty than others. According to the Child Poverty Action Group, 47 percent of children from Asian and British Asian families and 51 percent of children in Black African/Caribbean and Black British families are experiencing poverty, compared to 24 percent of White families. Thereby an effective promotion, prevention and early intervention strategy relies on a child-specific approach.

Read the full article about youth mental health by Fozia Irfan at Alliance Magazine.