Sara Chatwin: psychologist on the new report showing quarter of young people facing high levels of psychological distress

A child psychologist says it's not a surprise to find nearly a quarter of young people experience high levels of psychological distress.

A new Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission report also reveals a high level of unmet need for Māori and young people. 

Child psychologist Sara Chatwin says life pressures and online content are fuelling issues. 

She says groups really struggling include men, Māori, Pasifika, and youth.

"And showing up consistently in our suicide statistics and all the rest of it - I think we've got a record problem and we're not actually seeing this for what it is." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One in four young New Zealanders are struggling with serious
psychological distress. That is the concerning picture that's painted by
the latest Mental Health Commission report. It found that young
people are being hospitalized for self harm at nearly three
times the rate of adults. Sarah Chatwin, child psychologist and
director at Mind Works, is with us Hi, Sarah good
after name. What do we consider serious psychological distress?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh? Well, I mean a lot can come under that umbrella,
and it's really really not surprising, which is scary for
me to be seeing these kind of stats. But I
think you're looking at suicidal ideation, you know, self harm
of a very serious nature. There's such a lot of
things that could come under this umbrella, particularly with regard
to harming other people, because you know, you have a

(00:44):
very adult mind, so there's a lot under that one.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Do you believe that one and four.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
It doesn't come as any surprise. Yeah, I do, because
I have worked in the public sector and even in
the private sector. You're seeing this on the weekly private
I would say on the daily multiple times publicly. So yes,
I think that with a lot of things that are
happening in this world, particularly with regard to what kids
are seeing, what they're viewing social media pressures. The fact

(01:12):
that groups such as adolescent youth, men in particular Mario
Pacifica and youth generally falling into these groups that are
really struggling and showing up consistently, you know, in our
suicide statistics and all the rest of it. Now, I
think we've got a real problem and we're not actually
seeing this for what it is. Can I just say

(01:33):
that after I've commented on shows like yours and others,
I get a barrage of emails and calls from parents
of these children, So I know that this is happening.
I know it's out there. They are hugely concerned. We
have definitely issues in those groups.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
There is talk in this report of problems with online harm.
So what are we talking about here? Is that bullying?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Boy? It is bullying. It is also you know, negative messaging,
you know the looks max and culture where you know,
kids are encouraged to bash their cheekbones with a hammer
because they have to look a certain way. That's just
one example of what goes on in terms of content
on social media. I mean here that I don't know

(02:16):
where parents are not getting the message around this. You
and I have talked about this many times. There have
been many people like this over the course of a
decade or fifteen years, since about twenty ten, that have
been saying, hey, parents, we need to get a handle
on what is being put in front of our children
because it's really harmful. And these statistics and this report
today shows that there are a number of areas that parents, educators,

(02:39):
everyone has to focus, you know, more strongly on.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
There's also concern about the global environment what that's doing
to kids. Are we talking I'm assuming that what we're
talking about here is wars and climate change.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, I think so. I mean, kids are being a
political interest and those kind of conversations are obviously cropping
up in households. Parents just need to have an awareness of,
you know, agent stage, what is appropriate for their kids
to be seeing and hearing. Have a handle on that.
At the end of the day, as parents, we are
the architects of our kids destiny to a certain point,

(03:12):
and certainly in the teenage years when the peer group
becomes important. It's great to have good relationships with our
kids because then they come back to us to talk
about things. But yes, global issues become an issue that
our kids are focusing on, so leaving those pathways of
communication open so that they feel they can talk to
us about things so important.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, hey, what do you make of what Kirstarma's done
banning the social media for the under sixteens over in
the UK.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, I mean UK Australia. A lot of people say
to me, you know, why do we need the government
to step in? Well, potentially because parents aren't doing the
job that we're supposed to do. We do need to know,
you know, have a broad brushstroke look at what our
kids are viewing, because it is contributing to suicidal ideation,

(03:58):
kids hurting themselves, feeling thirty to fifty percent worse about
themselves when they walk away from viewing Instagram and Facebook.
We need to know what's going on and as parents,
maybe we need to step up a bit more.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, quite right, Hey, thank you very much, really appreciate it.
Sara as always at Sara Chat when Child' psychologist director
at Mind Works.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
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