Childline: Mental health a major concern for charity’s counselling support

We hear from young people every day who are struggling with their mental health. Over the last year, more than half of our counselling sessions focused on this topic, with 99,179 sessions with young people that focused on mental and emotional health and wellbeing – an average of 272 sessions a day.

A 14-year-old boy who contacted Childline said: “For the last few weeks, I’ve felt my mental state getting worse. It’s ok at school but as soon as I’m alone in my room the thoughts start; I’m unwanted, I’m not normal, there’s no point doing anything. I feel so trapped by these thoughts.”

It’s important to remember that prolonged mental health issues can have a long-term impact, but with the right help at the right time this can be prevented.

The Childline website also provides support to young people on the advice pages or resources. Drawing or writing can be a helpful way for children to process their emotions, as it can enable them to express themselves and make sense of their situation, and the site includes the Art Box, where children can write or draw about their feelings. Children can also use the service’s Calm Zone, an area of the website with lots of tools and mechanisms to help young people cope.

It’s possible that mental health concerns can spark feelings of loneliness sometimes too and that’s why our message boards on the Childline website might be a helpful platform for young people too. Sometimes a problem shared is a problem halved and they can speak to their peers about any subject that is upsetting them in a safe and moderated environment.

Our phone service is free, confidential and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can be reached on 0800 1111 or by logging on www.childline.org.uk. Children and young people can use our one-to-one chat service.