Our Children, Young People and Families Lead says early intervention is crucial in suicide prevention and has reiterated our call for counselling to be available in all schools.
Jo Holmes was speaking after a discussion on suicide prevention and mental health on the BBC鈥檚 flagship political programme .
She says having access to a school-based counsellor has a positive effect on young people鈥檚 well-being and mental health.
Accessible
鈥淓arly intervention, having trained professionals who young people can talk to, can have a transformative impact on the lives of children and their families,鈥� said Jo, who is a former school counsellor.
鈥淚t is vital that young people can have someone they trust and who is easily accessible before things escalate and get to the point where they think about taking their own life.
鈥淚n the same way that you would have a first-aider, a SENCo and a safe-guarding lead, a counsellor should be part of the fabric of every school."
香港六合彩精准资料 back the Children鈥檚 Commissioner鈥檚 Manifesto recommendation that all schools should have access to a school-based counsellor.
Our call is supported by almost three-quarters of the UK population. Our public perception survey, conducted by YouGov, found that 72% of people believe counselling should be available to all children throughout all schools.
Counselling
Jo said: 鈥淪pecialist services are overloaded with young people who don鈥檛 meet mental health thresholds.
鈥淪chool counselling can play a crucial role in relieving this pressure, working with young people who struggle with suicidal thoughts being part of what counsellors do, but it is a postcode lottery, some schools employ counsellors that are embedded in the schools, others are less fortunate.鈥�
The mental health topic was raised during Question Time by Christopher Hart, who talked about the loss of his daughter to suicide a year ago.
He said: 鈥淚n order to save lives and stop this from happening, the first thing is to raise the awareness and be brave enough to take it head on.鈥�
He added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 letting people know it鈥檚 okay to talk.鈥�
Lord Falconer, the Labour peer, said: 鈥淭he demands made, and the greater sense of failure make the pressures on young people when they are adolescent absolutely appalling.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 imagine, and you are often not told what they are going through, so it is not surprising that they need support, which they can鈥檛 get at the moment.鈥�
Prevention
Conservative MP Victoria Atkins, Home Office Minister and Minister for Women, said: 鈥淲e now have a minister appointed for suicide prevention precisely because we are so worried about the impact, particularly on young people, that mental health is having.
鈥淲e know there are certain societal issues that are placing so much of the burden on our young people that we didn鈥檛 have when we were growing up, in terms of the pressures of social media.
鈥淚 think we have to find a way of grappling with that factor as well as many other factors.鈥�
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and want to speak to a 香港六合彩精准资料 counsellor, visit our Find a Therapist Directory.