A film Kids in Crisis reveal significant issue related to childhood mental health. BBC Panorama (2018) illustrates three severe mental health problems and states the story behind them. The film aims to deliver the message that children with mental health issues are not receiving treatment until suicide attempts (BBC Panorama, 2018). Despite concerning actions and conditions of children, some specialists consider the case ‘not fit for purpose’ (BBC Panorama, 2018). All children depicted in the documentary received treatment only after intense complications in their mental health conditions.
An example of 14 years old Jess shows that mental health issues do not follow a schedule and are applicable for children. Jess’s mental health problems started with the beginning of secondary school. When a Camhs crisis team accepted her, she attempted suicide and practiced self-harm behaviors such as cutting veins. Jess describes that time was like “all your negative thoughts and all your awful things that have happened over the last week all just collapsing into one hour, almost like putting you in a bottle and shaking you up and then letting you out again” (BBC Panorama, 2018). Moreover, during her nine-month treatment, she was attacked by a staff member in one of her psychotic episodes. Jess was returned home and diagnosed with autism (BBC Panorama, 2018).
The case of children attempting suicide is a concerning question that boomed across the world. According to BBC Panorama (2018), one in ten children under age 18 suffer from a mental health issue. Supply for Camhs services, namely mental treatments, and rehabilitation, fails to fit the demand. Along with complications to access treatment, children are delivered in increasingly harsh conditions that make it challenging to provide an effective treatment. Furthermore, the quality of treatment does not fit the budget invested in this issue. As stated by the BBC Panorama (2018), the government allocates an extra £1.4 billion in children’s mental health treatment; however, Labour’s MP Luciana Berger thinks that money is invested in other actions.
In recent years, the question of mental health issues started to attract people’s attention due to more complicated cases. BBC Panorama (2018) states that mental health issues have more than doubled since 2010. Kids in Crisis is a good representative that children require help and treatments before the dreadful consequences. Children with mental health issues face difficulties in diagnosis because they are not designed for their age range. Moreover, the film revealed that government should establish mental health treatment institutions in every corner of the country. For example, the film shows the Welsh teenagers who had to travel five hours to get mental health treatment (BBC Panorama, 2018). This documentary represents probably one of the most crucial issues of today’s society.
I see this issue concerning and declaring many means. From the documentary, it is clear that the health care system does not arrange specific recovery plans. Doubtless, mental health among children is not a new problem existed for a long time. Nevertheless, now we can see that the health care system demands considerable transformations in all spheres. The mental health problems such as depression, suicidal behavior, and OCD previously observed mainly in the adult population are elevating among children. We need to put all efforts to prevent such cases before it gets worth and adapt it for children’s features.
Reference
BBC Panorama. (2018). Kids in crisis [Video file].