Surge in young people receiving help from Childline for coping with anxiety

• Counselling sessions for children and young people suffering from anxiety almost double in two years

• Childline’s annual review ‘The Courage to Talk’ highlights how the NSPCC-supported service is playing an increasingly important role in the child mental health landscape

• In Wales, nearly 1,500 children and young people have contacted Childline since 2015/16 citing issues around anxiety

Friday 7 December

A SHARP rise in the number of children from Wales seeking help for anxiety has been recorded by Childline, with many young people feeling unable to manage the pressures of modern life.

In 2017/18 the UK-wide counselling service, which today launches its annual review ‘The Courage to Talk’, delivered 21,297 sessions to young people trying to deal with feelings of anxiety which has almost doubled since 2015/16 ¹.

Counsellors with the NSPCC-supported service delivered 608 sessions to children and young people contacting them from Wales in 2017/18 – up from 340 in 2015/16 and an increase of almost 79 per cent.

And the true figure could be much higher with 5,654 children and young people contacting Childline not saying where they were calling from.

Meanwhile, Childline staff and volunteers at the helpline’s two Wales centres fielded 2,470 contacts from children and young people from across the UK last year regarding anxiety.

The two Welsh bases, where volunteers take online chat contacts in Cardiff and phone calls and online contacts in Prestatyn, have seen a rise in contacts of more than 104 per cent since 2015/16.

Of the 21,297 sessions delivered across the UK last year, at least 88 per cent² of the support provided by Childline for this issue was given to girls.

Children and teenagers cite a range of reasons why they may be feeling anxious including bullying and cyber-bullying, eating problems, relationship problems and issues at school with homework and exams.

Some also experienced anxiety alongside other mental health issues such as depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, while others reported having suffered abuse, neglect or bereavement.

‘The Courage to Talk’ details how in 2017/18 Childline delivered 106,037 counselling sessions to young people experiencing problems with their mental and emotional health and wellbeing.

This is a five per cent increase on the previous year and more than a third of the total number of counselling sessions provided online and over the phone.

In Wales, more than 40 per cent of the counselling sessions delivered in 2017/18 by Childline were on the subject of mental and emotional health and wellbeing.

One girl aged 12-15 who contacted Childline said:

“I have anxiety and get really bad panic attacks. I’ve never known how I could tell anybody about what I’m feeling so nobody else knows. I’ve tried to explain it a little bit to my mum, but she thought I was just stressed out about exams and I felt like she didn’t understand.

“Lately everything seems to make me nervous and worried and it’s all getting really hard to cope with. I want help from somewhere but I don’t know how to get it.”

In Wales, the Welsh Assembly’s Children, Young People and Education Committee published its ‘Mind over Matter’ report earlier this year which urged the Welsh Government to improve the provision of emotional and mental health support for children and young people in Wales.

Esther Rantzen, the founder and president of Childline, said: “I am increasingly concerned at the huge rise in anxiety affecting our young people.

It seems that the support they desperately need from family, friends, their schools or mental health professionals is either not there when they need it, or is failing them.

“Fortunately Childline is here to comfort and support them.  But we must ask why for some young people is the world becoming such a difficult place?

“Unless we find effective answers to this question we know the anxieties they suffer from can get worse, leading to suicidal thoughts or chronic mental health problems as they get older.” 

Des Mannion, the head of NSPCC Cymru/Wales, added: “Anxiety can be crippling and it is deeply worrying that the number of counselling sessions we are delivering for this issue is rising so quickly.

Increasingly Childline is filling the gap left by our public mental health services, providing young people with a place they can go for round the clock help and advice.”

Any young person in need of help or advice can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or childline.org.uk.

Adults can contact the NSPCC Helpline 0808 800 5000 or on nspcc.org.uk.

Both are free, confidential, and open 24/7.