MHM Magazine

Issue 4 | 2022 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 33 MHM and calls for investment in children’s mental health and wellbeing across the continuum. This entails structural solutions, and prevention and promotion programmes – not simply treatment. Intervening early is key and targeting children and their families with universal services that protect them from harm and promote their health and wellbeing can help prevent mental health problems which can be expensive and difficult to treat later in life. Interventions which start early in life also have cumulative positive effects. However, the benefits of early intervention can be lost or degraded if these interventions are not maintained or exclude older age groups. It’s therefore critical to sustain support for children throughout childhood and into adulthood with additional support to help children negotiate developmental transitions such as puberty or starting a new school. A whole-of-society response These investments in young people’s mental health need to extend beyond mental health services and harness the efforts of families, schools, communities and a range of government services to create an ecosystem of support that protects young people from harm, nurtures their health and development, and provides them with the freedom, opportunities and resources to realise their dreams and potential. Support families The foundations for positive mental health are laid in the home, where families have a central role to play in providing nurturing care and protecting children from harm. Yet poverty and hardship undermine families’ capacity to care for their children, and when families are struggling the state has a duty to provide additional support. For example, the Child Support Grant has strong positive effects on the mental health of both caregivers and their children helping to improve food security, reduce stress, and increase their feelings of independence and control over resources and the future. These benefits can be further boosted by targeted parenting programmes that Building an ecosystem of support  Adapted from: Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health UHL. Multistakeholder Consultations on Programming to Promote Adolescent Well-Being: Summary Report. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022.