Real Life: ‘Concern’ from Youthline CEO amid huge rise in mental distress in young people

Shae Ronald, CEO of Youthline.

The CEO of New Zealand’s pre-eminent youth mental health service says she’s concerned for the current generation of young people amid a huge rise in rates of mental distress over the last decade.

In an interview on Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, Shae Ronald, ONZM, said it’s clear “things have changed for this generation” following research that shows mental distress had roughly doubled in young people locally and internationally since 2012.

Ronald said there are multiple factors contributing to poor mental wellbeing in Aotearoa’s youth compared to previous generations, with Covid and adverse weather events both having had an effect in recent years, but she believes it’s the rise of social media that’s had one of the biggest impacts.

“With social media, there’s this ‘always on’ mentality. A lot of young people talk about how it’s pretty constant. So if there are things going on in a young person’s life, it continues in that [online] space,” she told Cowan.

“Back in my day, we used to be able to leave school, and if we were being bullied or there were awful things happening, we would get a reprieve from that for a period of time. Young people now aren’t getting that downtime - they’re pretty ‘on’ [all the time].”

Youthline provides a 24/7 helpline, counselling and youth mentoring, with about 15,000 young people supported each year across eight centres.

Ronald, who has worked in mental health for close to 30 years and became CEO of Youthline in 2018, says Covid has made things harder for young people. Research suggested they would be disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and this is now taking shape in the form of a “mental health tail” from Covid.

“There’s a bubble of young people coming through that would’ve been at intermediate school when Covid was at its worst in New Zealand. We’ve heard from lots of families that they are finding it particularly difficult, and schools are seeing that as they are entering high school,” Ronald says.

In Youthline’s State of the Generation report, released last week, 82 percent of people surveyed said mental health was the biggest issue young people faced in New Zealand.

But other stressors were on the rise, the report revealed, with one in 10 young people describing economic uncertainty as the biggest issue they faced - up from one in 25 in 2021.

“It’s showing that the issues impacting wider society are also affecting young people. When families and communities are affected, so are young people, and this survey really speaks to that,” Ronald said.

“I think it’s fantastic that young people are reaching out for support - parents, families, friends, support services - and normalising that conversation in Aotearoa around mental health and wellbeing.

“But we are concerned because we know some communities are disproportionately impacted - the Rainbow community, neurodiverse community, Māori and Pasifika communities - by Covid and economic uncertainty.”

Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7:30pm on Newstalk ZB.