大象传媒

An East Yorkshire parent is backing calls for the Government to look at the impact of exam pressure on young people's mental health. Rebecca Robinson has told the 大象传媒's Political Reporter Sarah Sanderson how she believes exam stress contributed to her daughter Molly's mental health when she was just 12 years old. As a result of her illness Molly was absent from school for nine months and it took two years for her to be diagnosed with a general anxiety disorder for which she was eventually offered help. But Rebecca says this help and support should have come sooner "She was very tired, she had stomach pains, she felt sick quite often was very reluctant to go out. She felt very sad. I just wanted to find help. I felt that she deserved a diagnosis but I was struggling to find that." Molly is now coping well and sits her GCSE exams next week. She's looking ahead to her A Levels and her future. Earlier this week, both the Education and Health and Social Care Select Committees published a report which recommends that the Government should gather independent evidence concerning the impact of exam pressure on young people's mental health, and what steps might be considered to build resilience to cope with it. Former teacher and Hull West and Hessle MP, Emma Hardy, says "What I believe they should do and what's mentioned in the report is actually having a trained professional in each and every school to work with young people. We shouldn't give that role to a teacher who has a long list of other jobs and responsibilities." Matt Blow from the charity Young Minds says "Exam pressure can exacerbate difficulties that young people are already facing. Obviously it creates stress and pressure and it can add on to things that they're already experiencing." The Government says "We completely reject any suggestion that our plans to overhaul children's mental health care lack ambition - these changes will transform mental health services for children and young people, including the first ever waiting time standards for those with the most serious problems. This will be supported by a new workforce - larger than the entire current workforce - and backed by 拢300M of additional funding that will also provide significant additional resources for all schools. This builds on what good schools are already doing, without adding unnecessarily to teachers' workloads. We agree that every young person should be able to access mental health support - however we need to ensure we get this right, which is why we will pilot this approach to make sure services are correct."