IRISH teenagers are more anxious than ever — as the situation in Ukraine, their online life and the pressures of school take their toll.
It has been well documented that children’s mental health services, such as CAMHS, are totally overwhelmed and that waiting lists for those seeking public help are getting longer.
But there are also a large number of kids who may not qualify for specialist services, and would like help learning how to cope with stressful situations.
The ISPCC and Childline are now offering digital programmes to help children and their parents cope with anxiety and low moods.
The modules were created as rates of anxiety continue to rise with our nation’s young people, particularly in the last two years.
Here ISPCC’s Director of Services, Caroline O’Sullivan explains to Nicola Bardon about the new programmes and how they can help.
READ MORE IN MENTAL HEALTH
CHILDLINE has begun offering guided digital self-care programmes in response to a high level of demand for support around anxiety across the country.
It is important to note that not all anxiety is bad, in fact anxiety is a normal part of growing up and also developing skills to deal with things.
Anxiety becomes a problem when it starts to get in the way of everyday life.
That’s when you can’t cope anymore and feel completely overwhelmed by what’s going on and not being able to live your life and in these instances you may need additional support or professional help.
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A lot of anxieties that children experience can be worrying about things that haven’t happened yet.
They’re not able to sleep at night because they’re worrying about the upcoming exam, or they feel something bad is going to happen.
Life is more complicated for children than it has been before, there are different pressures and children are coming to us in Childline talking about feeling lost, feeling alone, not feeling they are good enough, they’re not fitting in, they’re anxious or overwhelmed.
We have noticed the additional pressures children place on themselves where they feel pressure to put forward the image of having the perfect lifestyle.
The Instagram worthy lives, when in reality nobody’s life is actually like what they portray on Instagram.
Adults can look at these posts and images and recognise it, but children may not have the maturity to understand this.
So, for some children they feel that ‘everybody else’s lives are absolutely wonderful and fantastic. Why am I sitting alone and feeling sad, ugly or upset?’ They don’t see the reality of it.
This is why within the past year we have developed two additional services to support children, build resilience and coping capacity.”
GUIDED DIGITAL SELF-CARE PROGRAMME
We’ve noticed over the past two years in particular the levels of anxiety in young people have continued to grow.
Anxiety seems to be a huge issue and in particular children’s coping capabilities.
Dealing with challenges and feeling completely overwrought and alone – impacting them in so many different ways – not being able to sleep, poor appetite and physical symptoms like headaches and they can’t figure out where these headaches are coming from or why they are feeling like this.
We knew that we needed to do something, and we know that the CAMHS services are under pressure.
There are delays and also CAMHS deal with the high-level risks but for a lot of children, they do not hit that threshold and their parents don’t have anywhere to go in terms of support.”
There are three programmes available – One is Space from Anxiety and that’s for teenagers aged 14-18. The child will log onto the programme and work their way through different modules.
It’s not just how they deal with anxiety, it’s also about understanding where it comes from and the impact that their thought process has.
So, recognising how they can sometimes build something up and that these negative thoughts can become feelings.
If you think something enough, it then can become a reality for you.
This programme gives children, the knowledge around anxiety and how it impacts on their body and secondly, key skills and tools to cope with those levels of anxiety.
We also offer two programmes for parents as we found that they are really worried about their children. There’s one for parents of children aged 5-12 and one for parents of teenagers.
They can go online and complete this programme so they know how to support their child through the low mood, anxiety or depression.”
SMART MOVES
We have noticed a lot of anxiety for fifth and sixth class students particularly in relation to the transition from primary to secondary school.
That was heightened even more in the pandemic because prior to the pandemic they would have had the opportunity to go in and see the new school.
There were children who hadn’t been in school for a lot of sixth class, hadn’t had a lot of contact with their peers, didn’t know the school they were going to and while that might seem like a small thing to us, that’s huge to them.
Our SmartMoves programme has been developed specifically for those children making that transition. It’s not just about getting there and what will happen.
There’s a huge part about coping skills, mindfulness practices and resilience building so the children, regardless of the challenges they face, they have the skills to deal with it and come out the other end.
This programme is available free of charge to primary schools and is delivered by the class teacher.
CHILDREN’S ANXIETY AROUND UKRAINE
Some children are feeling threatened by what is happening in the Ukraine. This is understandable.
None of us expected this to happen, the people of the Ukraine didn’t expect this to happen either but it has and it’s causing a lot of anxiety.
Some children have spoken to us about their fears that we’re going into World War 3 and can sometimes focus on the most negative outcome.
We’ve got to learn to pull back from the constant news checking.
Parents need to recognise that constantly talking about it and constantly watching the news about Ukraine is not helpful for your children.
We need to sit down and have a chat with them about it. What do they think about what’s happening, are they concerned, chat to them about their worries and most importantly of all reassure them that they’re safe with you.
- TO TAKE PART in the Space from Anxiety programme contact spacefromanxiety@ispcc.ie
- Or for children transitioning from primary school to secondary teachers can contact smartmoves@ispcc.ie for more information on this programme.