Supportive Family And Friends Key To Young People Being At Ease With Mental Health

A caring and supportive family is seen as the best environment for young people to experience mental well-being, new research reveals today.

The research, carried out by the MORI Social Research Institute for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship and its young people's @ease website [www.at-ease.nsf.org.uk], finds that almost two-thirds (61 per cent) of young people believe a caring family is the best protector of mental health. Friends were cited by almost half of young people (47 per cent.)

Other highlights from the NSF research:

• Just under a quarter of young adults (24%) report direct or indirect experience of stress.
• The factor most frequently mentioned as buffering against mental illness is the family (61%), with friends (47%) and medical treatment (medication 45%; hospital care 44%) next.
• 40% of respondents think that public understanding of mental health issues would help reduce mental illness.

Young people's facts and figures from the @ease website:

• Young people under the age of 25 make up one in four of the population (14.9 million people).
• One in 10 young people will experience mental health problems severe enough to seek professional help.
• Suicide rates are falling among all groups - except young people, where suicide accounts for 20% of all deaths.
• Schizophrenia usually first strikes at people in their teens and early adulthood.
• From the first symptoms, young adults wait 18 months for a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Technical details

MORI conducted a survey in two waves. First wave questions (nationally representative quota sample of 269 adults aged 16 - 25 across 188 sampling points, face-to-face and in respondents' homes between 18 - 22 October 2001) focused on awareness of mental illness and mental health issues among adults aged 16 - 25 years. Second wave questions (same methodology, with nationally representative quota sample of 1,935 adults aged 15+ in Great Britain) assessed awareness of organisations helping people with a mental illness. (8 - 13 November 2001). Data have been weighted to reflect the population profile in each case.