Mental health services need to adapt to ensure that those with mental health problems get continuous support for as long as they need.

by John Nichols | Feb 11, 2015 | Mental Health, Prevention

If a child is diagnosed with diabetes, they get continuous and ongoing support from the NHS right through from diagnosis into adulthood and beyond. This is how healthcare should be. There should be prevention and screening (where appropriate) and where problems are...

Young people understand how to address mental health issues – we should listen to them.

by John Nichols | Feb 10, 2015 | Mental Health, Prevention

Members of Youth Parliament for Plymouth are understandably a little shocked that the society in which they have been growing up seems happy to routinely ignore mental health issues for the most part to the extent that 204 young people with mental health problems were...

Stop arguing about the number of beds and focus on the real long term solution to the mental health crisis.

by John Nichols | Feb 9, 2015 | Mental Health, Prevention

A preliminary political skirmish has been taking place with both government and opposition manoeuvring for electoral credibility in advance of the election campaign. The battleground has been the important issue of child and adolescent mental health. However, both...

Mental health and wellbeing is important to all of us and we need to start preventing it.

by John Nichols | Feb 4, 2015 | Mental Health, Prevention, Wellbeing

Last week there was an important event which represents a gradually shifting attitude towards mental health issues. On the 29th of January, in the British Library in London, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network: Mental Health and...

We urgently need to address the mental health of children and young people – our system isn’t working.

by John Nichols | Feb 2, 2015 | Mental Health, Prevention, Wellbeing

We are facing a hidden health crisis. I’m not talking about cancer or some other physical illness that happens to exist under the skin, but mental health. We can visualise most internal physical diseases thanks to the wonders of modern science and our fancy scanners...

Too many young people learn the hard way, The Prince’s Trust’s new advert shows this all too vividly. Prevention is key.

by John Nichols | Jan 29, 2015 | Mental Health, Prevention, Wellbeing

The Prince’s Trust’s new advert vividly shows the adversity young people can face. What can we do about it? Young people today are facing tremendous adversity. Gang violence, family break ups, bullying, being taken into care, poverty and being a young carer are all...