Suffolk Charity reveals children as young as 7 experiencing anxiety and body image issues
Some young people have spent half their life in a pandemic - and the effects of it are clear, according to a Suffolk charity
Some young people have spent half their life in a pandemic and the effects of this are clear to be seen, according to one Suffolk charity.
Suffolk Young Peoples Health Project, also known as 4YP, says its now seeing kids as young as 7 struggling with their social, emotional and physical health and wellbeing.
They initially focused on 12-25 year olds, but are now helping children as young as 7 years old.
We spoke to Scarlett McMurtry a youth work manager at 4YP who told us what could be this increased need for children's wellbeing: "(Children are) coming back after covid with a lot of fears around going back to school, (and) that transition as well.
"(There is) a lot of pressure on them, through stress and anxiety through exams and schools, and especially after COVID.
"We found a lot of young people presented anxiety and worry. Also a lot of stuff around body image as well especially from 8, 9, 10(years old) .. and lack of self-esteem.
"But also friendships how that kind of whole group dynamic is with the friendships. And around what is bullying, what is not bullying, how do what is a good friend, how do I be a good friend.
"So exploring that at that age was vital. And I think it's that whole relationships that's the key and looking at who's their network support, who is their friend and really getting them to see their self.
"As well as a lot of family breakdowns, a lot of grief."
Scarlett told us that many of the young people 4YP help have 'unhealthy social skills': "It can be anything from communication.
"So for a lot of young people, (it's like) how can I communicate? But (also) social skills from just doing your jobs around the home.
"They maybe didn't know how to use a knife and fork and they didn't know how to use a certain sort of cutlery or to do certain stuff.
"I think with the social skills, it was a range of stuff. How can they sort of talk to peers as well?
"And I think that found that really hard.
"How do we have maybe challenging conversations together?
"And so I think for us, it was a literally from anything, from the old ones. It was like how do we so on the button, how do we sort of have them life skills.
"When you getting a little bit older and you're budgeting as well and how do we engage with that.
"And with the younger ones, I think it was more around the communication. How you know how do to behave in certain situations if you've never been to maybe, a cinema before and it's all quiet, how do you know how do we behave?
"How should we not behave and just exploring that because there's no right or wrong. But how do we do it? So that was around sort of our social skills."
We asked why young people would struggle with these things: "I think there's a range of things. I think it's from maybe not learned from their parents or carers or who they're living with.
"I think ... the culture we live in now is very fast pace, a lot of social media because I think that's maybe been a little bit of impact.
"I think it's also because of COVID, I think it's as everybody's been in their own bubble.
"And so I think that's been a massive impact for a lot of children and I think that's probably one of the major reasons why."
Scarlett reminded us that 2-3 years is a long time for many, but it is not our whole lives, many young people have spent either their whole life, a half or third of their life in a pandemic.
Just as adults have tried to navigate through and figure things out, children are still learning the basics of life and because of everything going on, it's not uncommon for things to be missed.
"I think with children... people that say they're resilient.
"I feel like there's been that age that they have been forgotten about sadly.
"I think they people just feel that they children can adapt and cope really well. When actually no, they do really need that support now.
Scarlett told us what 4YP is doing in order to help young people: "Obviously all children needing that sort of additional support to learn around, communication with parents and how to face challenges, especially with COVID that really through it in the mix .
"So actually just that kind of social skills. I feel like there was a lot of unhealthy social skills. So she just kind of working along sort of increasing that and making it real sort of positive social skills.
"We've been offering some Summer programs and also some group work.
"So the group... we've changed to online and what it was is a really safe place with a trusted youth worker for young people to kind of engage in.
"And because obviously there's a range of different needs, but we would do is we would start off with a really kind of fun activity, a lot of team building exercises and then really working with that group to establish a relationship and then to develop the group from there
"We knew there was some stuff that young people wanted to work on, but we wanted to make sure it was young person lead.
"We worked on self esteem and relationships and feelings but it was done in a really creative way.
"We've done some cooking, they were working on different art projects, they were going on some little troops around of Ipswich and Suffolk.
"And so they would work together about pulling together about how these young people's peers can support each other.
"And we found that worked really well.... So it was all around their needs. So if the parents needed to wait in another room for the first few weeks that was absolutely fine.
" But we're really creative and making sure that it was adapted for their needs rather than just being thrown into sort this group.
"And we found that really worked really well and a lot of our young people from that group have gone on to different things.
"They've ever gone on to being young leaders and and or they've gone into counselling or they've gone to any of our groups. So it's been really lovely to see some of their kind of personal journeys.
What can you do to help?
"Listen. Listen and then also just really pick up our any signs.
"If there's anything out of character. It's just trying to have them open conversations.
"But also just learn maybe, just educate yourself as well if there's any courses or any mini courses and just talk together and I don't think just don't be afraid.
"Just have them open conversations. And if not, and there's another member in the family, or even, a youthwork or, somebody completely different.
"It's just making sure that the young person, or child is supported and heard, that would be my advice."