Children in care struggle to talk about emotional needs
Lauren Higgs
Monday, February 13, 2012
Looked-after children feel unable to talk to school staff about their emotional needs because of the stigma attached to being in care, a report by the youth mental health charity YoungMinds has warned.
The charity interviewed 50 young people from residential homes, secure settings and foster placements on issues related to placements, education and support services. Residential child care workers and supervising social workers were also consulted as part of the research.
According to the charity, most of the young people reported that their emotional needs were misunderstood by professionals, particularly at school, where staff have no experience of the care system.
Young participants repeatedly said that the only example of children in care that other people are familiar with is the TV character Tracy Beaker. They said they are tired of telling peers that they are "not like Tracy Beaker".
Many of the young people interviewed for the report had a negative perception of mental health services. Those who had not accessed services were wary and suggested that they were for people who are "mad" or "mental".
Lucie Russell, director of campaigns and policy at YoungMinds, said services that come into contact with looked-after children and young people need to be much more aware of their mental health needs, given the rising number of young people entering the care system.
"There needs to be more widespread understanding of what it means to be a looked-after young person," she said.
"Looked-after children have come from a variety of traumatic backgrounds and experience many of the risk factors that lead to mental health problems, including neglect, violence and sexual abuse. Mental health services should be prioritising the needs of looked-after children and ensuring services are designed and delivered to meet them."
To improve looked-after children’s experience of education, YoungMinds is calling on schools to give young people control over who has access to information about them and to improve basic mental health training for all school staff.
To reduce mental health stigma, the charity is urging local child and adolescent mental health services to involve looked-after young people in rebranding provision so that services are more appealing and accessible to young people.
