Brighton5

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Brighton5 film shootWe’re making a concerted effort over the next few weeks and months to raise our profile and drum up interest in Brighton5. Read all about it!

We’re getting ready for our first project, to create and produce video content for local schools and colleges. Our teens will learn skills in production, animation and music. They will work in teams, building relationships, and with expert mentors to gain a positive understanding of issues that affect their mental health, such as device addiction and negative body image.

We want to help teens to help themselves. With the help of local teens, parents and schools, colleges, Sussex Police as well as Brighton businesses, we hope to create positive and long term change.

Want to get involved? Subscribe to our blog, follow us on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), or contact us and tell us your story.

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We have a WhatsApp group for the core team involved in Brighton5. Most days we share one or more news stories about the current mental health crisis that is affecting teens in the UK. A recent article reported that there had been a sharp rise in under-19s being treated by NHS mental health services.

The article states: “There were a total of 389,727 “active referrals” for people aged 18 or younger in April, a third higher than the same month two years ago, according to the latest statistics published by NHS Digital.

The number seeking help for conditions such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders is rising sharply.”

Meanwhile we push on with getting our crowdfunder video edited, getting the messaging for our crowdfunder page just right, and we continue to meet people, organisations and businesses who are interested in helping and getting involved.

More and more we feel that this project is so important. Daisy and I have wound down a lot of our other commitments and we are making Brighton5 our priority – one that we plan to use as a template to roll out to other towns and cities. It’s a big ask, but we are totally committed to creating a great big positive space for Brighton’s teens to create, build, learn and feel safe in. One where they have a voice and a say in what happens. This isn’t our company, it’s theirs.

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The joys of managing a start-up, social enterprise project are all now making themselves apparent. We’ve been knee-deep in spreadsheets, budgets, video edits, meetings and research, research, research. It’s been a fascinating if exhausting time!

Firstly a huge thank you to those who’ve answered our last-minute calls for help with everything from budget forecasting, legal to editing and music! One of the driving forces of Brighton5 has been the people who’ve rolled up their sleeves and got involved. We are forever grateful.

We’re planning our parent-focused radio show, which we hope to air on Radio Reverb this autumn – watch this space! We’re looking for parents, and experts to speak or contribute their stories on everything from teen stress and mental health issues to body confidence and technology and device addiction. Please get in touch if you have a story, question or issue we can discuss. Onwards!

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As part of our ongoing research for Brighton5, we speak to those responsible for supporting children in some of Brighton’s biggest schools and colleges. We’re particularly interested in children’s mental health, one of our core focuses for the project. A recurring theme in our discussions is the lack of preventative approaches (and immediate referral support and resources). This means that, whilst warning signs are heeded, kids can’t always get the right help when it’s needed – early on.

This was brought into sharp focus today when the Education and Health & Social Care Committees published a damning report on the government’s new mental health strategy. They argue that the strategy is  “failing a generation”. The World Health Organisation states that “up to 50% of mental disorders in adults begin before the age of 14 years“.

The report asks huge questions about the strategy for mental health provision, answers to which are missing from the government’s Green Paper.  There’s a lack of focus on prevention, there is little joined up thinking on how different departments will work together, including a soloed culture –  all of which has been exacerbated by cuts in services and a lack of funding. They say there’s a woeful lack of data around  what provision is currently available in schools, an overstretched staff and issues with recruitment & retention, meaning that it’s unclear how the government will successfully implement the strategy – which the proposal seems to be to fund it from “within” existing budgets.

They also argue that the plan will take too long to implement leaving kids out in the cold – only 20-25% of the UK will be reached within 5 years.

At this point my blood was boiling. Our kids need help right now. Ten percent of 10-15 year olds in schools have mental health problems. We really can’t wait that long.

When we spoke to safeguarding staff for schools and colleges in Brighton, they told us that:

  • Reported cases of mental health issues have increased exponentially in recent years
  • Rates of anxiety in children have rocketed, with a notable change after exams were introduced in primary schools [which schools minister Nick Gibb refutes – he seems to think that more exams are the answer!?]
  • Politics is adversely affecting education with swings in policy each time a new government is voted in has a huge effect on kids. Education should be free from political see-sawing.
  • The amount of social media related problems have sky rocketed. Kids have very low awareness of what should and shouldn’t go on social media -bullying and body image issues need addressing.
  • Funding for wrap-around courses has been stripped back. The exam system is now academic, paper-based and test-heavy – if this is the measure of success, it disenfranchises a large number of kids.

One safeguarding staff admitted: “We have to wait until it’s all gone wrong before kids are eligible for the right level of support, but some of these issues are preventable – parents and teachers can often see it coming. The system is combative instead of preventative”.