Big Spender

Money is always tight in child and adolescent mental health services and tough commissioning choices have to be made. Children's Express was given a imaginary pot of money from Young Minds Magazine and asked which age group they would spend it on.

It's hard to pin point one particular age group more in need of resources when it comes to mental health because it can affect people at all different stages of life in many different ways.

But if we did have to make that decision, we'd definitely spend more money on young people going into their teens and in their early teens. Here's why:

Nestor, 13:

More needs to be done for a young person before they reach their teens. I've been working on a story about depression at Children's Express and recently we interviewed a young person who suffers from depression.

I was shocked to find out that he started feeling depressed at the age of 11. He told us that at first he didn't know what was happening to him and that he had suffered in silence for another three years until people started to take it a bit more seriously.

Listening to him talk about what he'd been through and what he still goes through made me realise just how awful it really is to be depressed. And on top of feeling this way, he still has to deal with other normal teenage things, like going to school.

If more had been done sooner to help this young person, perhaps he wouldn't have had to feel all the things he's felt. If you were to spend money on older teenagers - say those around 16 - it could be too late, especially if the young person is suicidal or they self harm. If more action was taken to help young people at an early age, they may never reach the point of contemplating whether their life is worth it.

Carmen, 15:

There are a lot of stresses we go through as young people. Just becoming a teenager can be staggering. Puberty makes you grouchy and can make ordinary day problems seem like gigantic catastrophes.

These kinds of feelings, mixed with feelings of depression can sometimes be just too much for a young person to deal with. If more was done to support young people through this period in their lives, perhaps they would not get to the point where they were so desperate they would think ending their life was the only way to end their problems.

Charlotte, 12:

We have so many social pressures on us - exams, new schools and parents telling us that we need to "be mature".

If young people don't get the right support they need when they're dealing with all of these things, it could lead to depression and young people self-harming.

The longer young people go without receiving help, then the more their problems grow. This then means that eventually more money will be swallowed up trying to treat adults with mental health problems.

I also think more money could go into educating people, especially parents, so that they could support their children.

About the team

This story was produced by Carmen Kalnars 15, Charlotte Lytton 12 and Nestor Sayo 13. It was published by in Young Minds Magazine.