iSpace: A mental health and wellbeing curriculum for children

While we are talking more and more about the mental health of adults, less is being done for children, and so Paula Talman and Nick Bushrod set up iSpace. They speak to Martin Friel

Early intervention: the organisation estimates that half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14 (iSpace)

We’ve never talked more openly about our mental health, but it wasn’t all that long ago that anyone brave enough to discuss their struggles might have been dismissed as a “crackpot” or even slightly dangerous.

The stigma attached to mental illness was, and to a certain degree still is, heavy, but in the last few years, an acceptance that it is just as important and normal to talk about as physical illness has come to the fore.

But there is one area that has been causing concern, particularly throughout the Covid pandemic – the mental health of young people. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 10-20 per cent of adolescents globally experience mental health conditions, but this is thought to be a low estimate due to underdiagnosis and undertreatment.