Latest news with #Unpredictable
The Irish Sun
14-05-2025
- Health
- The Irish Sun
Irish teens ‘succeeding in school, struggling in life', expert says amid ‘stark' least happy in developed world report
IRISH teenagers are among the least happy in high-income countries, despite leading the world in academic skills. Almost one in three 15-year-olds report life satisfaction across the country, the UNICEF report revealed. 2 More than one in four children and adolescents are overweight or obese in Ireland Credit: Getty While Ireland ranks first for academic performance, it falls to 24th for adolescent Ireland's youth suicide rate also stands at 6.4 per 100,000 which is above the international average. The Report Card 19: Child Wellbeing at Risk in an Unpredictable World compares the wellbeing of Executive Director of UNICEF Ireland, Peter Power, said: "These findings are stark. Read more in Health "Ireland's teens are succeeding in school, but struggling in life. "We must match our investment in academic achievement with the same urgency for mental and emotional wellbeing." The report analysed changes from 2018 to 2022, a period marked by the Across 26 countries with available data, life satisfaction among adolescents declined in 22. Most read in The Irish Sun School shutdowns, which lasted anywhere from three to twelve months, disconnected young people from peers, teachers, and critical support systems. More than one in four children and adolescents are The 15 signs a loved one is struggling with their mental health - and how to help When combined with constant exposure to unrealistic online body standards, the mental and physical health pressures on young people are intensifying. Head of Advocacy at UNICEF Ireland, Aibhlin O'Leary, added: "The pandemic has deepened existing inequalities, setting a troubling precedent for children's wellbeing - particularly among those from disadvantaged and marginalised backgrounds. "To respond meaningfully, we need a unified, child-centred strategy that tackles these disparities head-on and supports every child, at every stage of their development." UNICEF Ireland is urging the government to take targeted actions to protect child wellbeing, including increasing investment in in-school mental health services, particularly in disadvantaged areas, and drastically reducing waiting times for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). UNICEF Ireland targeted actions: Other targeted actions include: Improving physical health by enforcing strict nutritional standards for school meals to ensure all children, especially in disadvantaged areas, have access to nutritious, balanced meals; regulation of the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, in line with public health priorities, must also be prioritised. Strengthening digital resilience and body image education within the Junior Cycle curriculum, ensuring these topics are comprehensively delivered to address the harmful mental health effects of online pressures and unrealistic beauty standards. Engaging children and young people in conversations about their experiences with mobile phones and digital technology, fostering digital literacy and awareness of their rights in the online space. This includes working with them to identify and address the challenges they face online, and developing solutions that promote their mental health and overall wellbeing A spokesperson added: "UNICEF warns that the aftershocks of the pandemic, combined with economic pressures and digital harm, are reversing decades of progress in child wellbeing. "Governments are urged to centre children in recovery plans and ensure young people have a voice in shaping their futures." 2 The mental and physical health pressures on young people are intensifying Credit: Getty
Scoop
14-05-2025
- Health
- Scoop
New Global Data: New Zealand Ranks Alarmingly Low For Child Wellbeing, Mental Health
New Zealand has ranked fourth lowest out of 36 OECD and EU countries for child wellbeing in a new report just released by UNICEF. For mental wellbeing, New Zealand was the lowest ranking country, in 36th place out of 36 countries with available data. New Zealand showed the single highest youth suicide rate in the analysed countries during the reporting period – almost three times higher than the average for high-income countries. The report cites suicide as the fourth most common cause of death globally among adolescents aged 15-19 years. The latest in a UNICEF Innocenti research series spanning 25 years, Report Card 19: Fragile Gains – Child Wellbeing at Risk in an Unpredictable World uses globally comparable datasets to provide critical insight into child wellbeing in the world's wealthier countries between 2018-2022. While it is encouraging that recent domestic statistics on suspected suicide indicate that rates may be slightly decreasing, New Zealand is still a notable outlier compared to other countries and our rates are much too high. The report also shows where Aotearoa is falling behind on other key issues facing children – including physical wellbeing, where New Zealand has the third highest percentage of overweight children, and bullying, where the percentage of bullied children is the second highest. Advertisement - scroll to continue reading UNICEF Aotearoa CEO Michelle Sharp says the data should be a wake-up call and the upcoming Budget is an opportunity for the government to create positive change. 'Too many children in Aotearoa are missing out on their childhood. We're calling on the government to direct funding towards addressing these problems and to shift the dial, so New Zealand is not ranked so alarmingly close to the bottom of the table when it comes to child wellbeing. The government can act now, and act quickly to make positive impacts if it chooses to,' she says. UNICEF Aotearoa is deeply concerned about what the report tells us on children and young people's wellbeing in our country, and the trajectory this continues to take since 2022. Recent data captured in the Government's own Annual Report on the Child and Youth Strategy, as well as the most recent child poverty data from Statistics NZ, indicates that on major themes relating to poverty and mental wellbeing, the data has not improved in the last two years. Food security, affordable housing, hospital admissions and material hardship all continue to show negative trends. Faced with this stark data, UNICEF Aotearoa is calling on the government to address economic inequality and to prioritise funding for suicide prevention in the upcoming Budget, particularly for Māori and Pacific youth, who are disproportionately represented in negative statistics. UNICEF Aotearoa Director of Advocacy and Programmes Teresa Tepania-Ashton says there are several measures that could be implemented quickly. 'Immediately expanding eligibility for the Best Start payment to all children up to the age of five and laying out a roadmap for expanding eligibility up to the age of 18 would help tackle economic inequality and make a positive difference to many whānau in Aotearoa who are doing it really tough at the moment,' she says. 'We also support calls for the government to address food insecurity by fully funding an expanded Ka Ora Ka Ako healthy school lunches programme, ensuring that all children across every school and early childhood centre have access to nutritious meals, thereby tackling food insecurity quickly'. Sharp says child wellbeing in New Zealand is a political choice. 'The quality of life being experienced by the tamariki and rangatahi in this country is down to political choice, and we urge our decision-makers to make the right choices and directly invest in children in the imminent Budget and beyond'.
