MIND MOVES Tony BatesWhen Mephisto made a deal with old man Faust for his soul, he offered him power, wealth, or pleasure. Faust declined each of these options in turn. Instead, he asked for the treasure that held all three, youth.
To be young is to live on the edge of seemingly endless possibilities. To chase your dreams and learn to ride the emotional extremes of expansive self-confidence and crippling self-doubt; to experience vividly the joys and devastations that each day throws your way. Nothing is certain, your life is on the line, but there is everything to play for.
Many challenges have to be confronted as young people move beyond the protection of childhood and engage with the outside world, establish a sense of personal identity, develop close relationships with their peers, and make career decisions that will shape their future. Given the potential for becoming stressed by any one of these issues, it should come as no surprise that the number one health issue for young people is their mental health.
The majority of young people make it through to adulthood without getting into serious trouble. But every year about one in four may need some extra support. A smaller percentage of these will require some specialist expertise, but in Ireland it is very likely they will be waiting a long time before they ever get the help they need. Although we have the knowledge and resources to provide these young people with effective help early, we tend to wait until they become chronically unwell before intervening.
Studies have shown that among adults attending community mental health services at age 26, 80 per cent of them had clear evidence of having a significant mental health problem by age 18, and 50 per cent showed evidence of being in trouble by age 15. Delay in accessing appropriate help resulted in their problems becoming a great deal more disabling than was necessary. Many of them developed a negative self-image of being "faulty" or "beyond help" which needlessly deepened their sense of personal failure.
There is very clear evidence that when serious mental health problems like psychosis are left untreated, young people lose contact in painful and needless ways with themselves, families and friends, career opportunities and with their own dreams.
In contrast, where appropriate help is given early to these young people, there is overwhelming evidence that they can recover. In a climate which demands evidence-based practice, it is difficult to understand why we don't bring tried and tested early intervention programmes into the forefront of our mental health services.
When they are asked about it, the majority of young people do not know where to turn for help if and when they need it. They report feeling stigmatised by having to visit formal centres of care that are more geared to small children or adults. The problem for young people is that they fall between the two stools of child and adult services.
Child-oriented services are understandably very unappealing for a young person who is growing into adulthood - just imagine being 15 years old and sharing a waiting room with young children and their parents.
Conversely, think of how a 20-year-old might imagine the future ahead of her as she sits in the waiting room of an adult psychiatric service surrounded by people twice her age who are heavily medicated. Young people who find themselves in crisis want someone to talk to who will help them make sense of their difficulties and help them find solutions.
Innovative and youth-appropriate initiatives are beginning to emerge within the mental health landscape - notably services like The Gaf in Galway, Detect in South Dublin/Wicklow and the youth-led website Spunout.ie. However, most young people in Ireland do not have access to youth appropriate mental health services that meet international standards of best practice. There is an urgent need to make it possible for young people in every corner of Ireland to access the help they need in an effective way.
To address the current youth mental health crisis in this State, a public meeting is being held in June at UCD, hosted by the National Centre for Youth Mental Health and the School of Psychology. The keynote speaker for this event will be Prof Patrick McGorry from Melbourne, the world's leading innovator in developing youth mental health services. Prof McGorry will present a vision of youth mental health that will challenge all of us to do much better in how we support young people when they most need help. I look forward to seeing you there.
This event will take place in Theatre L, Newman Building, UCD, Belfield from 7.30pm to 10pm on Tuesday, June 20th. Admission is free. For further information, phone 01-7168410 or e-mail: tbates@irish-times.ie
Tony Bates is a clinical psychologist.