ADPH supports early years mental health report

The recently published report from the Royal College of Psychicatrists highlights the importance of children’s early years, outlining the wide range of factors that determine mental health.

These factors come into play at different times in a child’s life, and with differing levels of impact depending on the child’s age and stage. The various factors interact throughout childhood – and beyond – feeding into and building on each other, accumulating to form varying degrees of either a vicious, or virtuous, cycle.

It is vitally important that, as well as establishing effective treatment and intervention, we work together to ensure that these risk factors are minimised, or at least mitigated against, by increasing the protective factors.

In order to achieve better health for children, young people and society as a whole, we are calling on the next Government to take bold action to place health at the heart of all policy decisions in our Manifesto for a Healthier Nation.

In it, we outline our recommendations for a new Public Health Act, a new Child Poverty Act, a dedicated health inequalities strategy and an increase in public health funding. services to ensure that parents are supported to give children the very best start in life.