IMLA ED&I Group: Supporting teen mental health – Lewis

At a time when conversations around wellbeing are rightly front and centre, one area that still carries enormous weight – and stigma – is teenage mental health.

According to YoungMinds, a mental health charity, in 2023, one in five children and young people aged 8-25 had a probable mental health condition.

That’s 20%, and the number has been steadily rising since 2017, particularly in the 17-19 age group. Between 2023 and 2024, referrals to emergency mental health services for young people rose by 10%. Many of those referred have been stuck on NHS waiting lists for months, even years. Suicide is the leading cause of death for people under 25 in England – and around three-quarters of those deaths are among boys and young men. Almost one-third of 17-24-year-olds have self-harmed or attempted suicide.

At the latest Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) Lunch and Learn session, our colleague Paul Holt shared his family’s experience, while adolescent neuroscience expert Dr Perry Walters shared valuable insight into this important area. 

 

Paul Holt, business development manager at Skipton Building Society 

“I’m no expert in teenage mental health, but I am experienced in dealing with it. 

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“Our daughter Tilly had a joyful early childhood and thrived at primary school – bright, sociable, and caring. She had a sense of justice, always looking out for the underdog. But her transition into adolescence coincided with the disruption of the pandemic. Lockdowns removed her real-world friendships and replaced them with online-only interactions. When she moved to secondary school without her primary school friends and still in the shadow of Covid restrictions, things began to unravel. 

“The first serious indication something was wrong came with a suicide note, shared with a friend and passed on to her friend’s mum.

“We found Tilly asleep in bed. No tablets taken. She said it was a cry for help. But the incidents didn’t stop. One evening, I found Tilly unresponsive, surrounded by tablets. That was the beginning of a long and painful journey involving multiple trips to A&E, incidents of self-harm, and even a suicide attempt in a local lake. 

“Tilly has since been diagnosed with autism, ADHD, anxiety, and depression.

“We’re in permanent lockdown now. We’ve had to put locks on the windows. Every weekend for the past month, we’ve ended up at hospital. Support has been hard to access. Waiting lists for CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) are painfully long. Sometimes it feels like they only come to sweep you up once you’ve already hit the pavement. 

“I can’t overemphasise the value of talking to other people about something like this. When it first started happening, I thought I was alone. But then I started speaking to people – and I realised how many other families were in the same boat.

“My advice to any other parents or carers going through something similar is to be persistent. Ask for help. Talk. Don’t hide in silence.” 

 

Dr Perry Walters, education consultant for adolescent neuroscience 

“We’ve long had a sense that adolescence is a uniquely emotional and impulsive time – Aristotle and Shakespeare even wrote about it. But only in the last couple of decades, thanks to advances in brain imaging, have we really begun to understand why. Until relatively recently, it was assumed that the brain was mostly developed by the end of childhood. In fact, while the brain is about 95% of its adult size by then, it continues to undergo significant change throughout adolescence. 

“Neuroscience shows us that the adolescent brain is in a state of dynamic remodelling. One of the key changes is a rapid increase in neural connections at the onset of puberty, which are then refined in a ‘use it or lose it’ process. This makes adolescence a time of great opportunity – but also vulnerability. 

“Critically, two major parts of the brain develop at different rates. The emotional and reward systems mature early – often by ages 14 or 15 – making teenagers highly sensitive to emotion, peer approval, and risk. In contrast, the prefrontal cortex, which governs judgement, impulse control, and long-term thinking, doesn’t fully develop until the mid-20s. That mismatch helps explain the intense emotional highs and lows many teenagers experience, especially when tired, stressed, or surrounded by peers. 

“We also know that adolescence is a crucial time for social development. There’s a natural drive to leave the family ‘nest’ and form peer bonds. Covid disrupted that for many young people, cutting them off from face-to-face interaction at a critical time. Being socially excluded – whether online or in person – can hit adolescents particularly hard. One study showed that when teenagers were excluded from a simple computer game, their brains registered that exclusion as real, physical pain. Unlike adults, they showed no activity in the part of the brain that helps rationalise and reframe the situation. For adolescents, emotions can completely take over.”

 

Dr Walters introduced the ASPIRE model – a framework for understanding adolescent development: 

• Autonomy: the growing need for independence. 

• Self: forming a personal identity and purpose. 

• Passions: strong emotions and emerging interests. 

• Inquiry: a desire to test limits and explore. 

• Relationships: increasing importance of peer bonds. 

• Emotions: powerful but often hard to regulate. 

 

 

Where to find help 

• YoungMinds

• SENDIASS – Local authority support for special educational needs and disabilities 

• National Autistic Society

• CAMHS – Accessed via GP referral, though often with long wait times 

• Mind