Fonagy said the support being provided to young people needed to be improved.<\/p>\n
The NHS, he said, was simply “not fit for purpose”.<\/p>\n
He said too many people were being left on waiting lists, pointing to figures that show one in three people referred to mental health services were still waiting for help after a year.<\/p>\n
There were some positives steps being taken, he said, including the rollout of mental health teams to work closely with schools.<\/p>\n
However, he said tackling the problem will require action across society \u2013 in education, employment, housing and families themselves.<\/p>\n
For example, Fonagy blamed cuts in youth services over the past decade or so for leading to fewer places for young people to mix and develop a sense of belonging.<\/p>\n
“We need to have opportunities for them to participate, because participating in things… maintains good mental health.”<\/p>\n
He also said it was striking that loneliness among young people had increased since 2000, linking it to the rise in use of phones and social media, which have reduced face-to-face contact and disrupted sleep patterns, both of which are damaging to mental health.<\/p>\n
But as well as addressing phone use, he said there were other things families and friends could do.<\/p>\n
“Saying to someone, ‘I notice you’re not quite the same as yesterday. Is there anything the matter?’ Knowing there is someone who knows makes an enormous difference.”<\/p>\n
His hope? That working together, society can make a difference. “I want young people to hear that when they feel anxious, depressed or distressed, that it’s a real problem, but a problem we can do something about.<\/p>\n
“When I needed help, I got it. I want everyone to have that chance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fonagy said the support being provided to young people needed to be improved. The NHS, he said, was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-625008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}