Thousands Of Abused Children ‘Left To Fend For Themselves’

ChildLine received nearly 100 contacts a week last year from children across the UK who have been abused and whose mental health and wellbeing are suffering as a consequence, the charity’s latest annual report reveals.

In all 85,000 counselling sessions for young people across the UK with mental health-related concerns – equal to one every six minutes - were undertaken in 2014-15 by the NSPCC’s free, 24-hour service.  Counsellors from bases across the UK including Glasgow and Aberdeen helped young people suffering from unhappiness, suicidal thoughts, low self-esteem and diagnosed mental health disorders such as bipolar. Of these over 5000 involved children who also sought help for sexual or physical abuse.

Disturbingly, many felt they had been left to fend for themselves, with the number of children unable to get vital help more than doubling.

It is well established that abuse can trigger mental health issues such as depression, self-harm, anxiety, and on occasion suicidal thoughts, so it is crucial that young people are able to receive support easily.One in ten calls to the confidential service was about abuse.

The number reporting unhappiness and low self-esteem issues rose by 9% to 35,244. And those troubled by anxiety almost trebled to 8,642, the report, ‘Always there when I need you’ revealed.

One 15-year-old contacted counsellors in Glasgow because she felt like she had been taken advantage of : 

“I feel really low. I’ve started to think about killing myself and have cut myself a few times. No one seems to notice how unhappy I am, I just feel worthless and like I need to end it.”

Four of the top five concerns about accessing services related to mental health and well being. Lengthy waiting times, lack of out-of-hours support, service closures, and absence of information contributed to young people feeling frightened that they could not cope, leaving them unable to eat or sleep. They also fretted about ‘opening up’ for fear of being a burden or seen as attention seeking and said ChildLine counsellors were the only ones they could turn to.

The lack of services, and waiting until crisis point to discuss their concerns could lay the foundations for long-term mental health problems. Untreated anxiety disorders can spiral into clinical depression, self-harming, and suicidal feelings in adulthood, the report warns.

During 2014/15, ChildLine carried out a total of 286,812 counselling sessions across the UK , including 47,758 in Scotland. As well as being worried about mental health, young people were also concerned about abuse, family relationships, bullying, friendships and relationship issues, and school and education problems.

Peter Wanless, NSPCC Chief Executive, said: ““The road to recovery from abuse is long and often children are crying out to ChildLine because they have no one else left to turn to. Thousands of vulnerable children– many of whom have been abused - are silently coping with serious issues that leave them racked with worry when instead they should be getting help to rebuild their childhoods.  We risk failing a generation of children if we leave them without the vital support they need to recover.

ChildLine founder, Esther Rantzen said: “Many of today’s children feel utterly miserable – for some, they feel that life is not worth living. We need more help and support for young people. We must give them a chance to tell us what is in their hearts.”