Last year, NSPCCs 25-year-old ChildLine launched an online version of its call-centre service. Children who wanted to get in touch about a range of serious issues could now write an email, send a text, or start a live web chat with a volunteer counsellor. The launch proved incredibly popular, with 60% of ChildLine’s counselling now read more »

NUS warns that more and more students in England are turning to dangerous methods in order to afford the £9000 a year University fees. According to the English Collective of Prostitutes, which runs a helpline for people working in the sex industry, the number of calls it receives from students has at least doubled over read more »

Renewed calls have been made by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) to have a trained counsellor available at every school in Scotland. The BACP already has over 1,500 members in Scotland and 35,000 across the UK and carry out work with the private, public and voluntary sectors. In 2004, over 55,000 Scottish read more »

Addiction charities are said to have seen an increase in the number of young people seeking help for ketamine use since mephadrone was made illegal in April 2010. Ketamine users are usually drawn to the drug for its hallucinogenic effects, which many claim gives them the feeling of being detached from their body. For medical read more »

Becoming obsessed with a social networking site can result in an increased risk of depression in children, say experts. According to experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the act of being shunned and ignored on a social networking site can be more detrimental to a child than if they experienced this treatment from their read more »

According to figures from the Public Health Agency (PHA) suicide rates in Northern Ireland have experienced a sharp increase of 64 per cent in the last decade. Over a relatively short period of time an unusually high number of young people in the city have been committing suicide, with their deaths having serious and reverberating read more »

A recent study has revealed that young people who smoke cannabis stand an increased risk of developing psychosis. A study conducted by a research team from Germany, the Institute of Psychiatry London and the Netherlands has investigated the effects of smoking cannabis on 1,900 volunteers in Germany aged between 14 to 24, before following up read more »

What does the Government’s new mental health strategy mean for children and young people in Britain? Last week it was announced that the Governments new mental health strategy was to focus much of its attention on a series of early intervention programmes which are aimed at identifying children and adults who may be vulnerable to read more »

According to British researchers from the University of Bristol and the University of Cambridge, girls who start having periods before the age of 12 are more likely to experience symptoms of depression than those whose periods begin later. The long term study involved 2,184 girls and aimed to find out whether or not early menstruation read more »

A recent study has revealed that an alarming percentage of teenagers are pretending to have a mental illness which they deem as ‘cool’, reports the Daily Mirror. Many teenagers are faking serious conditions such as bipolar disorder, depression and self-harm in an attempt to mimic famous sufferers and impress their peers. Teenagers who took part read more »