Anna Smee, chief executive of UK Youth, said her organisation is increasingly hearing concerns about young people's mental health being raised in youth work settings.
Her claims chime with a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers last month that found that half of teachers surveyed had seen an increase in the number of children in their school with mental health issues.
Smee told CYP Now that young people are “facing increasingly complex decisions”, and has called for mental health issues to be taken as seriously as physical issues.
“I think the first thing we need to acknowledge is that this is a serious issue and you cannot treat anything unless you recognise there is a problem first," she said.
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