Mental Health Of Today's Youngsters

I normally have time for the Labour Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, but when he was attempting to justify the cuts to Personal Independent Payments (PIP) to reduce the disability payouts, he pointed out that: 'Mental health conditions were being overdiagnosed' and went on to explain that this led to the growing population of economically inactive individuals, especially amongst the young.
There is a youth mental health crisis and the Government's own figures show that today's teens are suffering increasing mental health and eating disorders and mental health issues are affecting sleep and school attendance.
Around 30% of teens surveyed meet the criteria for suffering from clinical levels of anxiety and depression and the number of young people out of work due to ill health has more than doubled in the last decade, with mental health issues a significant driver.
I am sure that there are many social and economic factors playing into it including just being a teenager which are never the easiest years anyway but what today's teenagers suffered which we never, was the best part of two years isolated during the Covid Pandemic.
It was a necessary evil at the time and saved countless lives but i can't imagine how it would play with me if during my teenage years when instead of running around doing all the sorts of stupid things teenagers do, I was sat at home unable to go out and gaining my independence and confidence, building friendships and relationships and even moulding my personality and identity.
Instead, today's teenagers lived through a global public health crisis with catastrophic health and economic consequences and that has to have consequences
to their lives and shaped their social and emotional development and making all the existing struggles that young people face today worse at the most critical time in their young lives.
In April 2023 to 2024, 3.8 million people were in contact with mental health services in England alone, which is 40% higher than before the COVID pandemic but as it isn't a national problem and is International shows that far from it being 'overdiagnosed', it is a real issue Worldwide with young people more anxious, depressed and mentally ill than previous generations and antidepressants are being prescribed to over 8 million young people globally, an unprecedented number.
Rather than play along with the damaging 'millennials are snowflakes' mantra of the previous nasty Conservative Party, Labour should be working on programs to assist in responding to the health needs of adolescents because there is a demand and something needs to be done to prevent teenagers with mental health issues turning into Adults with them and all the problems that brings for themselves and Society in general.