Mental Health Awareness Week 18-22 May

18th May 2020

No Limits’ snapshot survey of children and young people’s mental health highlights urgent need for more support as lockdown eases 

65% of young people in Southampton feel that their mental health has worsened during the lockdown and there is also significant anxiety about social restrictions beginning to ease. With so many deaths, a long period of time indoors and now beginning to emerge into a new normal, No Limits are calling for urgent recognition and action around the mental health needs of children and young people. 

Ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week, we took a temperature reading of young people’s mental health within the city.  Results show that a third don’t feel optimistic about the future, 50% have rarely felt useful during the lockdown and 78% have felt stressed at least some of the time. 

Significant concerns during the lockdown have been whether it will ever end, concerns over friendships and over the future. As lockdown eases, young people are worrying about how much everything will have changed, whether other people will follow the rules and whether they will have slipped behind in education. 

We’re calling for transitions support to be made available to all children and young people who need it as they emerge into the new normal.  Alice Mooney, Service Manager at No Limits says “Post lockdown funding is needed to support young people to positively reconnect with their communities, understand their anxieties and deal with any bereavement they may have experienced. Children and young people need to feel able to talk about their worries however insignificant they may be considered, to help process these extraordinary events and avoid mental health problems worsening.” 

As soon as possible, No Limits will be re-starting their Health and Wellbeing drop-ins in schools and opening their Advice Centre. In the meantime, help is still available remotely. Children and young people can speak to a trained No Limits Youth Worker by phoning 02380 224 224, emailing enquiries@nolimitshelp.org.uk/staging or by starting a web chat at www.nolimitshelp.org.uk/staging.