Mental Health Illness of Children: Analysis, Strategies, and Impact

This report provides a critical analysis of mental health problems in children, focusing on the increasing prevalence and significance of these issues. It explores key health issues, including anxiety disorders, depression, and conduct disorders, along with associated risk factors such as genetic influences, family dynamics, and peer pressure. The report highlights the importance of early intervention and outlines key principles of care, emphasizing empathy, respect, and patient autonomy. It also discusses strategies for promoting well-being, such as resilience training, positive parenting, and self-regulation skills. Furthermore, it examines the involvement and impact of health and social care in addressing children's mental health, emphasizing the need for accessible services and cognitive interventions. The report concludes by underscoring the importance of addressing these issues to improve children's quality of life and reduce the long-term effects of mental illness.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH ILLNESS OF CHILDREN
Mental health illness of children
Name of the student:
Name of the university
Author note:

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Introduction:
The prevalence of mental health problems amongst children and adolescent is of growing
importance in the United Kingdom. With respect to their cognitive development with the
growing years, the prevalence of mental health issues is increasing gradually where there are
very limited interventions to resolve the issue. Mental health problems can be a major burden of
countries which increasing every day due to certain parameters, which contributed to the mental
stability of the individual. From the psychological perspective, the intervening in the mental
health of children in the early stage of life proved to be effective than trying to resolve it in the
later stage of life (Xu et al. 2018). The prime reason behind this is the root cause of the majority
of mental health problems are childhood experiences which enhances over the period and
contributed to the chronic mental health disease. Apart from that, social relationship with friends,
family and school functioning contributed to the enhancement of the mental health crisis, which
is long lasting sometimes. A study by Bradshaw et al (2016), suggested that if children hood
problems are left untreated than only 50% of preschool children exhibit natural cessation of
behavioral problem. The remaining 50% may experience long-term effects, which include the
social isolation, withdrawal from the family interactions and dropping out from the school. This
paper is aiming to provide a critical analysis of mental health problems that are usually
experienced by children. This paper will illustrate the key health issues of children, the key
principle of care relating the issue, use of strategies to promote the well-being and the
effectiveness, involvement and impact of health and social care, equality and diversity issues
relating to the mental health with the assistance of a mental health report of children in following
paragraphs.

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Key health issues of children:
Within the last century, considerable changes have been observed regarding health and
disease patterns in children and young people. The world health organization is predicted that by
2030 the prevalence of mental health issues amongst children will increase more than chronic
diseases such as cardiac disease or bacterial infection (Darwin et al. 2016). The mental health
report of England, Cumbria.gov.uk (2016), highlighted the mental health issues that experience
by children frequently and risk factors that contributed to the mental health issues of children
with the assistance of statistics. The study showed that 10% of the children aged 5 to 16 years are
experiencing clinically significant mental health illness and 25% of children who need treatment
and received it (Cumbria.gov.uk 2016). Moreover, 50% of children in the United Kingdom are
experiencing lifetime illness and started experiencing symptoms at a very young age. The report
highlighted that drug misuse, smoking and peer influences are more likely contributed to the
health problem. The study suggested that individual factors such as genetic influences, specific
development delay, communication difficulties, physical impairment, and academic delay
contributed to the mental illness. Family risk factors such as family disharmony, parental mental
illness, parental criminalization’s, emotional abuse play a huge role in giving rise to the mental
illness of children (Cumbria.gov.uk 2016). Moreover, bullying, discrimination, peer pressure,
poor pupil to tutor relationships are the risk factors from the school that worsen the mental
makeup of the children and adolescent. Consequently, children become victims of Anxiety
disorders, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Conduct disorders, Depression and eating
disorder. National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (2018), stated that these risk factors
gradually worsen the meant stability of children and give rise to other psychotic disorders in their
adulthood.

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Another study suggested that similar mental health issues experienced by children which
decrease their quality of life. The report , Cumbria.gov.uk (2016), showed that about 695, 00
children aged from 5 to 16 years in England have clinically significant mental disorder where
39, 500 children suffering from anxiety, 10, 800 children suffering from depression,18, 900
suffering from ADHD and 68, 100 children are suffering the conduct disorder. In extreme
cases, the children’s usually develop a chronic mental illness such as schizophrenia, self-harm,
and suicide (Cumbria.gov.uk 2016). 12% of the young people are living the life of misery due to
the long-term effect of the mental illness. The study reported that 50% increased the risk of the
mortality is due to the onset depression in children, However, the report, Cumbria.gov.uk (2016),
did not mention the prevalence of phobia from the anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder,
which created from the risk factors and increase the global burden of the disease. A study by
World Health Organization (2014), suggested that approximately 4% of the children suffering
from the obsessive-compulsive disorder and 9% of the children have specific phobias whose root
cause is an anxiety disorder. The Sonuga-Barke et al. (2017), suggested that left untreated
symptoms may give rise to the functional and cognitive impairment across multiple domains.
Therefore, novel clinical developments in the reduction of the prevalence of mental health issues
are required for promoting mental wellbeing and providing quality life to the children.
A key principle of care relating the issue:
Mental health illnesses are the leading cause of health-related disabilities and have an
adverse, long-lasting effect on the innocent mind. Emotional health and wellbeing of children

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are just as essential as their physical health and wellbeing. Over the past few years, there has
been growing recognition of the need to reduce to the prevalence of the mental health illness
within children has contributed to the dramatic improvement services for children and young.
The significant investment in these services reduces the prevalence of the mental health by
addressing the mental health issues in early childhood rather than in the adult where the clinical
conditions worsen. The report provided the importance of the mental health descriptive analysis
but the report failed to address the principles of care related to mental health. The principles of
the issue highlighted by other accumulated journals. A study by Santosh et al. (2016), suggested
that a carer must follow certain principle in order to provide effective patient-centric care. The
principle is especially important for the caring children since they are mentally vulnerable
compared to adult patients with chronic illness. Therefore, a person must regard the principles of
care in accordance with mental health act 2014 while exercising the care process. According to
Brooks et al. (2017), the act stated that children who are receiving mental health services should
be provided with assessment and treatment in the least restrictive way where carer will show
empathy, compassion, and respect towards the patient. Santosh et al. (2016), showed that those
children who are receiving the mental health care should be provided with all of the facilities that
bring about the best possible therapeutic outcomes and promoting recovery of the patient and full
participation in the community life. The most crucial principle of the carer to follow is that the
patients who are receiving mental health services have rights dignity and autonomy for mental
and physical wellbeing. Therefore, carer must acknowledge the needs of the patient with mental
illnesses and identify the risk factors that give rise to the mental illness, which involves the drug
and alcohol-related problem, bully, peer pressure and lack of proper communication with the
family members. Fraser et al. (2017), stated that another crucial fundamental of the carer is to

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prioritizing the decisions making of the patient with mental illness regarding treatment,
assessment and recovery process. The legal guardian of the patient or children itself should be
allowed to involved in the decision making of their assessment and their preference and views
should be respected. It will bring out the best therapeutic outcomes by reducing the prevalence of
mental illness. The children with the eating disorders and depression are proved to be cured by
following the fundamentals because making children the center of decision making install a
sense of worthiness, increase their social participation and improve their cognitive functions
(Fraser et al. 2017). The world health organization suggested that these mental health services
following the crucial fundamental which assisted more than 50% children to overcome their
mental health issues and who has a tendency to exercise self-harm because of their dissatisfied
lives. Furthermore, carer should protect, and respect the wellbeing of young persons who are
receiving the mental illness for the safety purpose of the patient. (Fraser et al. 2017), highlighted
the importance of recognizing their gender role, race, culture and ethnicity while providing care
to the children since these individual values of children shape the behavior of the children as
adults.
Use of strategies to promote well-being and effectiveness:
About 1 in 10 children are suffering from mental disorders, which reduce their
educational outcome, family functioning and quality of life. A study highlighted that there are
certain clinical strategies that promote the wellbeing of the mental ill health amongst children
and should infrequent practice in order to resolve the issue. The report, Cumbria.gov.uk (2016),
highlighted few strategies to promote the well-being of the children, which will shape their
behavior and functionality for living within the community. Resilience is crucial for the

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emotional well being of not only adults but also younger people because of the fact that it will
reduce the possibility of developing mental illness as an adult. The report highlighted that
appropriate parenting style is effective in order to the promote wellbeing because in the majority
of the cases children develop the mental illness due to ill parenting and lack of warming
relationship between children and parent. The positive relationship with caring adults helps in
overcoming the mental illness of the children and promotes the mental wellbeing of the children.
The advantages of the positive relationship with adults change the perspective of living life,
patient acquires positive values and beliefs and patient have a perspective of living quality life
(Brooks et al. 2017). Group parenting training is effective for addressing the concerns of
indolence and children in the early stage of life and it also helps in mitigating the risk of
developing the mental issues such as anxiety disorder, eating disorder and conduct disorder. In
the clinical setting, teaching self-regulation skills is one of the effective strategies to reduce
mental illness. The strategy is effective because the majority of the childhood mental health
issues are arises due to family violence, which in turn enhances the expression of the anger,
anxiety, and tendency of self-harm (World Health Organization 2014). Self-harm will able to
limit these expressions of the children and assist them to nurture their values in order to live a
quality life. Pharmacological management of mental health illness is effective for minimizing the
prevalence; however, it has certain side effects, which might affect the physical wellbeing.
Therefore, for promoting wellbeing the children, therapies are effective with the participation of
parents in the recovery process.
Involvement and impact of health care and social care in the wellbeing:

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Mental health issues of children and young people are highest priorities amongst global
advocated. The prime reason behind it is that mental health is one of the greatest causes of the
disability amongst children and youth, which often left untreated for several years.
Cumbria.gov.uk (2016), highlighted the involvement of health care and social care in the mental
illness of the children. The access to health care services improves the mental stability of
children since due to personal beliefs and lack of knowledge, a considerate number of children
do not seek the assistance of health care sectors. The report, Cumbria.gov.uk (2016), suggested
that in the health care setting children receives group based cognitive interventions where health
professional involved himself or herself in cognitive behavioral therapy. The therapy affected the
children since it releases negative thoughts of children, reduce the anxiety of children and reduce
the tendency of the self-harm. Play-based therapy is also effective for reducing the mental illness
since it reduces anxiety, increases the problem-solving skills, which further help in cognitive
development. Since nurses are the most trusted health professionals, the participation of nurses in
mental health issues is effective in reducing (Brooks et al. 2017). Social involvement has huge
impact in reducing the illness, which involves the effective teacher, and peer relationship,
emotional management program in the classroom has massive influence in reducing the mental
illness (Fraser et al. 2017). Parenting programs with the collaboration of the other community
members give parents and community member’s skills to help children and enhancing their
cognitive ability. Supportive peers and teachers in the classroom effective to resolve mental
dilemma reduce the tendency of self-harm of children and improve the annual performance of
the children (Fraser et al. 2017).
Equality and diversity issues in the health care sector:

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Equality in its wider sense consists of gender, race, disability and sexual orientation,
discrimination on the ground of age, language or social origin, or other personal attributed
including personal beliefs or political opinion. The mental health issues in children are very
common due to the diversity and inequality. About 1 in 7 young people aged 15 years in England
reported lower satisfaction due to the inequality. It was observed that due to the different race,
the children who belong to Africa develop mental health illness. The inequality also observed
due to a different sexual orientation such as heterosexuality, lesbian and gay, which contributed
to the risk factor of the mental illness. Inequality also observed in terms of gender in the United
Kingdom, which contributed to the development of mental illness such as anxiety disorder,
schizophrenia, eating disorder (Cumbria.gov.uk 2016). The report suggested that girls are 2.2
fold more likely to report low satisfaction of the compared to the boys. However, the report
superficially addresses the inequality and diversity issue, which contributed to the mental illness
(Cumbria.gov.uk 2016). Accumulated evidence reported that children also develop a mental
illness due to different demographic positions. It was observed that the children who belong to
different culture usually face the bully and social isolation due to differences in cultural values.
Different health promotion programs involving parents can resolve these issues where volunteers
can provide sound knowledge to the patents and through training where culturally competent
health professionals can be recruited for mental well being of children (Fraser et al. 2017). .
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that the mental illness of children is one of the growing issues
that affected the well-being of children and the global burden of the disease. The prevalence of
mental health issues is increasing gradually where there are very limited interventions to resolve

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the issue. The mental health report of England highlighted the mental health issues that
experience by children frequently and risk factors that contributed to the mental health issues of
children. However, the paper failed to provide the care principles for resolving the issues of
children and promote their mental wellbeing. The report highlighted the impact and involvement
of the health care and social care in reducing mental issues. Lastly, the report highlighted the
diversity and equality related the health issues. Therefore, it can be suggested that the mental
illness can be reduced through the involvement of community and parents which will promote
improve the mental wellbeing

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