Funding the future of girls and young women's mental health

The mental health crisis facing children and young people is one of the most pressing issues facing our society. For women and girls in particular, rates of poor mental health have risen sharply over the past decade.

And yet despite this concerning trend, there has been little recognition of girls and young women’s mental health in public or policy discourse.  With youth services and the voluntary sector already overstretched, girls and young women experiencing poor mental health are left struggling alone

The Centre for Young Lives and Agenda Alliance were commissioned by the Prudence Trust and the Pilgrim Trust to explore the rise in poor mental health among girls and young women and to better understand the role that philanthropy can play in supporting girls and young women to grow up well.

Girls and young women’s mental health has been deteriorating at a faster rate compared to boys and young men

At the same time, increasing numbers of girls are absent from school which can have devastating, long-lasting consequences. The number of girls and young women not in education, employment or training has reached its highest level in a decade.(1) They are also facing a barrage of harmful online content, and societal pressures that leave them worried about their appearance or with low self-esteem. At the sharp end, far too many young women experience misogyny, violence, and abuse in their everyday lives.

The mental health gender gap begins to emerge as early as 14.(2) Recent data shows girls make up 73% of children under 15 detained under the Mental Health Act. By their late teens and early twenties, young women are twice as likely as young men to experience a probable mental health disorder as rates of anxiety and depression have surged in recent years. Without intervention in the form of age- and gender-specific support, we risk that gap continuing to widen, and the mental health of girls and young women further deteriorating.

With demand for support rising, services are overstretched and unable to meet the needs of girls and young women

Despite this, girls and young women describe poor experiences with mental health services and may experience a larger treatment gap in the NHS, with a lack of policy, evidence and specific services to meet their needs.

Fragmented support across multiple sectors often means girls and young women can slip through the cracks of a fragmented patchwork of support – or get caught between services that aren’t able respond to the complex, overlapping, and gendered drivers of poor mental health facing girls and young women.

Part of the solution: The role of philanthropy in addressing the girls and young women’s mental health crisis

Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations across the youth, mental health and women and girls’ sectors have stepped in to fill these gaps, and play an important role in delivering support, but they continue to face capacity and funding challenges which limit their ability to meet  rising demand. Philanthropic funders can play a key role in supporting and strengthening the sector, bridging the gaps in support for girls and young women.

In this report, we set out how support must be trauma-informed and culturally specific, creating a safe space that is both gender and age specific and with services co-designed with girls and young women to ensure their voices are centred. Throughout our work, we heard from girls and young women, practitioners, and other professionals about the benefits of peer-to-peer support for girls and young women in providing a safe space to share feelings and offer strong and positive role models.

We set out ten recommendations to illustrate how philanthropy can deliver change for the girls and young women’s mental health space.

First, funders should address the gaps in provision outlined in this report, and fund efforts to provide age and gender specific support that is trauma-informed, culturally responsive and shaped by girls and young women themselves. To strengthen the delivery and scalability of effective interventions, funders should also look to build the evidence base of what works to support girls and young women’s mental health. Support for girls and young women is delivered across multiple sectors – mental health, women and girls, and the youth. Each sector brings distinct but key elements of support that works for girls and young women. Collaboration and effective partnership working is key to maximising the support that is already out there. We recommend funders incentivise collaboration through delivering consortia, convening networks and funding equitable cross-sector partnerships.

Sustainability is key to building up the sector’s ability to support girls and young women effectively and for the long term. Multi-year funding, support for core costs, leadership development and infrastructure investment must be standard for grant-making in this space. This is particularly important for small, grassroots organisations in their ability to survive and thereby grow the sector. We also recommend collaborative philanthropy and statutory partnerships to maximise funding pots to have the most impact.

Finally, long term, meaningful change requires systems change. Supporting advocacy to embed gender- and age-responsive practice in existing Government policies, such as Young Futures Hubs and school-based mental health support teams, is key to long-term change and ensuring girls and young women’s wellbeing is no longer an afterthought in decision making nationally and locally.

The challenge of improving girls’ and young women’s mental health is both urgent and achievable. It demands that funders act boldly and collaboratively, investing not only in services but in the relationships, evidence, and infrastructure that sustain them.

This report marks an important forward step to addressing the mental health crisis facing girls and young women and finding impactful solutions.

Read the full report here.

Authors: Anna Heuschkel; Policy Researcher, Centre for Young Lives and Tara Harris; Policy and Public Affairs Officer, Agenda Alliance