10% Of Young Scots Have Daily Mental Health Problems

One in 10 young people in Scotland suffers from mental health problems severe enough to interfere with their daily life, according to a leading children’s charity. The findings are included in NCH’s annual report card on children in Scotland, which claims there is still much to do to address the problem of child poverty and inequality. According to the charity’s research, smoking rates have halved in 15-year-old boys from 30% to 15% since 1996, while they have fallen from 30% to 24% among girls of the same age.

However, it also found that a fifth of Scottish children are overweight and that 27% of boys and 40% of girls are not active enough to meet the minimum health guidelines.
And 125,000 young people in Scotland have mental health problems which affect their daily lives.

Launching its FactFile for 2006-07, NCH Scotland said that, while progress has been made on many fronts, hundreds of thousands of young Scots are still living in poverty and being denied opportunities to change their circumstances.

The FactFile is is published each year to aid government, councils and other agencies formulate policies and includes information on subjects ranging from health to crime.

About 240,000 children are living in poverty, which is 100,000 fewer than in 1998, but more than 80% of parents with a disabled child are unemployed and disabled children are twice as likely to live in poverty.

A surge in violent behaviour among young women has been blamed on rising alcohol and drug use: almost one in three girls aged between 11 and 15 had been involved in at least one fight in the past year.

The research found 1122 young people under the age of 18 were admitted to hospital because of alcohol abuse and 509 received treatment, counselling or support for alcohol dependence last year.
The FactFile also claims that, in the EU, only France and the Slovak Republic have higher rates of youth unemployment than Scotland, where just under one in eight 16 to 19-year-olds is not in employment or training.

Andrew Girvan, director of children’s services with NCH Scotland, said: “The FactFile shows the gap that exists between young Scots from different backgrounds.

“Our report clearly shows that Scotland faces a formidable challenge in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable children in our society.

“However, we are encouraged by the commitment being shown by the Scottish Executive in driving forward improvements in services which are having a positive impact.”