Children As Young As Four Suffering Mental Health Problems

More counselling is needed in primary schools because children as young as four are showing signs of depression, a charity has warned. Young children are harming themselves and even contemplating suicide because they are so unhappy, according to The Place2Be, which provides advice in schools.

It reviewed 44 primary schools in London, where it is already working with 19,400 children. They include a nine-year-old who wanted to kill herself. She had been neglected at home and taken into care, and was also being bullied at school. Other children were suffering the consequences of coming from homes ‘rife with drug and alcohol abuse’. One child had even begun to show signs of ‘unhappiness’ aged four.

Benita Refson, of The Place2Be, said: ‘As society has changed so have the emotional needs of children. More and more children are developing diagnosable mental health problems, which are going unnoticed. We must reach these children as early as possible to help them make healthy life choices.’

The World Health Organisation predicts that mental health illnesses will become the planet’s second biggest killer by 2020. An Office of National Statistics study has found that one in ten British children had a mental disorder in 2004. And among five to ten year olds, ten per cent of boys and five per cent of girls had a mental illness.