First the good news: Teenagers and adolescents have begun to turn their backs on smoking, drinking and drugs. Young people classed as belonging to Generation Z – those born during the post-Millennial period, that is – are demonstrating clear behavioural changes that are to be applauded. Smoking in adolescence?  Down from 9% to 5% (compared...Read More

Lockdown is easing, the UK starting to reopen closed doors and life looking a little more normal once again. Spring is in the air and the sun is shining. Easter behind us, children back at school, and summer on the horizon and looming large. The reasons for optimism ought to be abundant. But still… For...Read More

Sam Holness has a superpower.  It makes him different, not like the other athletes. It gives him, he believes, an edge, a strength that he plans to put to good use as he strives to realise his sporting dreams. That edge? That strength? That superpower? It’s autism. Sam was three when the diagnosis was made,...Read More

Feeling helpless. Victimhood. Disengagement.  For obvious reasons, such feelings are commonplace at the current time, more than ever perhaps, such is life in lockdown, the COVID crisis leaving us all grasping for control, unable to do much more than tread water and await our respective fates. Such feelings then are, to a certain extent, inevitable;...Read More

It’s the sequel no-one wanted.  Lockdown 2. The latest instalment in a long-running saga for which no finale has yet been scripted. The shutters are going up once again, restrictions tightened, and freedoms limited. There can be no question, this has implications for us all. COVID-19 – and all that it entails – is a...Read More

One newspaper in the UK has described it as “the most important documentary of our times.” There’s no doubt – in our minds, at least – that it should be compulsory viewing. For young people, parents and adults alike. For social media users and those online, no matter their age.  For you. For us. For...Read More

The coronavirus experience. Good or bad? How has it been for you?  These are questions we posed on our blog a little earlier this month, the first of a two-part post looking at life in lockdown, with the focus on the problems posed for parents during the most difficult days in quarantine, with classrooms closed,...Read More

The coronavirus experience. Good or bad? How has it been for you? These might seem like strange questions, for at first glance, there can be few positives to be found in a pandemic. COVID-19 has impacted upon us all on a global level and, the obvious implications for health aside, lockdown has changed our lives...Read More

Ever thought about anxiety? Where it comes from? How it influences and affects those closest to us? Is it, for instance, genetic or a product of our environment? Should we be thinking about such things in altogether different terms? Most people, we think it’s fair to say, don’t have such thoughts or ever ask such...Read More

These are challenging times for many.  Children and young people with pre-existing mental health issues, are brought into sharp focus this week, following new research from YoungMinds. Having surveyed more than 2,000 under-25s with a mental health history, the charity’s findings are striking. The picture painted underlines that COVID-19 isn’t just affecting our bodies.  Increased...Read More