Welcome to our weekly roundup of mental health news from across the UK. This week the media has delved into the latest stats around mental health from a male perspective, Instagram has added a new feature to better help those at risk of problems and Jeremy Hunt has made some bold statements about how the NHS needs to change to better accommodate the growing mental health crisis.
Many sons fear talking to their fathers about mental health issues
This week The Express has published a story that reveals more than one in three teenage boys aged 16 to 18 would rather “put on a brave face” than talk about their emotions or any mental health issues they’ve been experiencing.
According to the article, the research was carried out by a campaign called ‘Time to Change’, which was dreamed up by the Mind and Rethink Mental Illness charities. It really highlights some of the wider issues around encouraging young men to talk more openly about their mental health problems. Let’s hope some new initiatives and campaigns are launched to try and bring about more frank discussions about our emotional well-being.
Instagram adds a mental health feature to help those at risk
A huge number of young people use Instagram nowadays to share snapshots of their lives. Because they essentially act like online photo diaries, the app has introduced a range of new tools that’ll enable users to anonymously flag any posts they think are concerning.
So if one user is worried another user might be struggling, whether that’s negative thoughts through to more serious references about suicide, a message will be sent to the user in question asking if they need support.
It’s a small but significant step in how we can better flag up anything that looks concerning and get people the help they need. Especially those who are more used to sharing with online communities than they are with real life friends and family.
Health secretary says the NHS needs to do more to help kids with their mental health
The UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt has spoken out about NHS care when it comes to mental health. He’s said that the NHS really falls short when it comes to caring for young people and children with mental health issues and a lot more needs to be done.
Hunt told the Health Service Journal:
“I think we are letting down too many families and not intervening early enough when there is a curable mental health condition, which we can do something about when a child is eight or nine, but if you leave it until they are 15 or 16, it’s too late.”
Each and every week we’ll be bringing you a fresh summary of the top stories concerned with mental health, any of the latest stats we can get our hands on and recently released research that provides us with insights into how we can better tackle the mental health issues that affect us all.
Keep checking back to our blog every week to find out what you’ve been missing.
You can also follow UK Therapy Guide on Twitter for the last news: @UKTherapyGuide
