Young people aren't snowflakes - mental distress is rising, says head of official review — SkimNews
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- Prof Peter Fonagy, head of an independent UK government review into mental health, ADHD and autism, told the BBC there has been a 'real rise' in mental distress among young people and explicitly dismissed the 'snowflake generation' label, saying 'it's harder to be young now.'
- Fonagy's review, produced with over 100 experts and families with lived experience, found approximately one in four 16 to 24-year-olds now struggle with mental health, with anxiety, depression, self-harm and eating disorders the most common conditions.
- Fonagy attributed the rise to economic and employment uncertainty, social media pressures, pandemic disruption, and a decade of youth service cuts, linking rising loneliness since 2000 to phone use reducing face-to-face contact and disrupting sleep.
- The NHS is 'not fit for purpose' for children's mental health, according to Fonagy, who cited figures showing one in three people referred to mental health services are still waiting for help after a year.
- The review, commissioned nine months ago by then-health secretary Wes Streeting after he claimed young people were 'written off,' found the crisis particularly pronounced in girls from about age 12, citing societal expectations and sexual aggression from boys as factors.
- Fonagy, 74, a clinical psychologist and adviser to NHS England, said he drew on his own experience of suicidal thoughts as a teenage immigrant from Hungary to lead the review, adding: 'Adults have let them down.'
Why it matters: With one in four 16 to 24-year-olds now struggling and one in three mental health referrals waiting over a year, Fonagy's findings put direct pressure on the UK government to expand NHS youth mental health capacity, reverse youth service cuts, and act on social media harms — and his 'not snowflakes' framing directly counters the over-diagnosis narrative that originally prompted Streeting to commission the review.
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