Today, Scotland’s Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee released their Report on children and young people’s mental health — and their suggestions echo what young people themselves have said.
Last year, we supported Scottish young people to be among those who produced a series of recommendations about how countries across Europe could get better at realising children and young people’s right to the best mental health possible.
The European Network of Young Advisers (ENYA) , created 48 recommendations in total.
One of these chimes with a key conclusion of the Committee, that more research is needed around children and young people’s mental health in general.
And several others focus on ways in which things can change – across education, health, media, government and the wider community – so that young people have access to the support that they need.
Those changes must be listened to as duty bearers work towards a key goal of the Committee’s report— that children and young people should get the help and support they need as quickly as possible.
The mental health of young people in rural communities
Elsewhere, the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee raised concern about young people’s mental health in rural communities— an issue that Scotland’s young people took directly to ENYA.
In their recommendations to the network, they said that extra work needed to be done so that people in rural areas could consistently access quality healthcare, including quality care around mental health.
More on ENYA
ENYA is a forum where young people from across Europe can discuss their views on a key issue affecting their human rights, which are then taken to ENOC, a network of children’s rights organisations from across the continent.