WE GO TO OUR FRIENDS BEFORE BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SAFEEST SPACE”. “There are a lot of people who can’t talk regarding these things with their family.” “There is still a cultural barrier regarding the topic of ‘I go to the psychologist’”. “We don’t have to see it as something extraordinary. We ask for more listening from the institutions and the Government.” “Youth are aware of mental health and advocate for change. We have a lot to say.” All of the aforementioned are reflections that Irene (15), Clara (17), Lara (20) and Fran (19) have made, but that any adolescent around us might have made.
Mental health problems and emotional distress are a major cause of suffering for children and adolescents that is often overlooked, but interferes with their health and education, as well as their ability to reach their full potential. It is essential to listen to them and open the public conversation to end the stigmas around mental health. And not only in our closest circle. Also in humanitarian contexts, such as in the Ukraine crisis, it is essential to take into account the psychosocial effects that occur, and implement actions to offer support and prevent the risk of medium and long-term repercussions on the emotional well-being of children and girls. The invisible wounds that wars and armed conflicts can leave can exact a high cost for society. Painful goodbyes at train stations. An explosion a few meters away. Destroyed houses. Family members who have died in front of their eyes. The dreaded siren noises. The escapes. Long hours walking in search of shelter. The physical pain that conflicts can generate in a child is dramatic. But the emotional discomfort that consumes him inside without even realizing it is no less.
According to the Unicef study In my mind: promoting, protecting and caring for children’s mental health (2021), more than 1 in 7 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 worldwide has a diagnosed mental health problem; anxiety and depression represent around 40% of these problems, but we must bear in mind others such as attention deficit disorders, behavioral disorders, bipolar disorders, eating disorders, intellectual disability, autism… However, the figure that What the abyss teaches us is that each year almost 46,000 adolescents commit suicide, that is, more than one person every 11 minutes, being one of the five main causes of death for this age group. Large gaps remain between mental health-related needs and mental health funding: only around 2% of government health budgets are spent on mental health worldwide.
Already in the summer period and with more desire than ever for vacations, we must not forget the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic, which have only put on the table a panorama of inequalities and emotional discomfort that already existed in many cases. . With the pandemic we have seen the tip of the iceberg of this problem. Just the tip; the rest is hidden; in the shadow. And when mental health issues are neglected in our societies, we reinforce stigma and keep children and their families from seeking the help they need, as stigma deters them from doing it right. Now more than ever we must listen to children and adolescents, without minimizing their pain; families must be supported so that they can better understand the needs of adolescents in a changing world; and it is necessary to guarantee that educational centers support emotional well-being and mental health, reinforcing their role to ensure psychosocial support for children who need it. It is a transversal and multisectoral work, which coordinates all areas such as health, education, social services, community or protection services…
For all these reasons, we fully trust in the new Mental Health Strategy of the Basque Country. In search of the emotional well-being of our childhood and adolescence, an urgent investment is necessary to address this problem in all sectors, not only in health. Increase the ratio of personnel specialized in childhood and adolescence; implement support programs for patients, families and health professionals; increase human and material resources; pay special attention to groups of greater vulnerability such as children at risk of poverty and exclusion, victims of violence, boys and girls who are in the protection or juvenile justice systems, migrant boys and girls and refugees or asylum seekers, children with disabilities, LGTBIQ+ children… At Unicef we ask for public mental health policies for these groups as well, with an intersectoral approach and a greater number of specialized resources. Because we want to fight once morest the stigma that many children and adolescents still suffer from some type of mental problem today. he
* President of Unicef Euskadi
