A worsening mental health crisis among young people of the Isle of Wight has been laid bare in major new survey by the Isle of Wight Youth Trust.
The 2025 Youth Mental Health Survey by the IW Youth Trust found 4 in 10 young people had considered taking their own life and 3 in 10 has been diagnosed with a mental health condition – both up compared to the corresponding 2023 survey.
The latest data also revealed 31% of respondents have self-harmed (without intending suicide), 71% said they often felt unhappy, down or tearful and 66% said they felt totally lacking in energy and enthusiasm.
Nearly half (46%) felt terribly alone or isolated, 71% reported problems sleeping and 58% said they had been worrying a lot.
Bullying was another worrying factor identified by the survey. 57% said they had been bullied and 65% said they had witnessed bullying. 41% said they had received threatening, intimidating or nasty messages via social media, email or text and 44% said they had been bullied on social media.
The data was collected by the IW Youth Trust through its bi-annual Mental Health Census conducted last year. In all 1,760 people between the ages of eight and 24 responded to the survey – around 500 more individuals than those who took part in 2023. The percentages given in the results reflect the numbers who responded to that particular question.
The IW Youth Trust carries out the survey to help it understand the pressures young people are facing which in turn helps the award-winning charity plan to ensure the services it offers meet the greatest need. To that end, the finding from the census have helped the IW Youth Trust draft its new 5-year strategy which will be published in the coming months.
Jo Dare, IW Youth Trust Chief Executive, has said:
“The latest census once again makes it abundantly clear that a great many young people on the Island are facing mental health issues. There are some really stark findings here that all of us on the Island need to be aware of.
“The first thing to say is that no young person need face these issues alone. We are there for you so please reach out if you need support.”
“That’s the purpose of the new strategy. Greatly informed by feedback we have received loud and clear from this survey; it will be a document that sets out our priorities and goals for the next 5 years.
“In the current, challenging climate, we recognise the importance of adapting and carefully allocating our limited resources so we can best support the mental health needs of young people on the Island.”
The IW Youth Trust wants to reassure the community that while young people’s mental health is a growing concern on the Island, support is readily available. It operates a welcoming walk-in hub in the heart of Newport, where young people can drop in, make initial contact in a safe, supportive environment and receive immediate and appropriate information, advice and guidance.
Support is also available by phone on 01983 529 569 or by email on [email protected]. More information about the Trust and its services can be found at www.iowyouthtrust.co.uk.
Social Media + Smart Phones = the problems listed above, cyber bullying and no respite from it.
I’m sure many people will take this wrongly, but it should be remembered that mental health is literally all in the mind. If you constantly tell young people how awful life is for them, it’s not surprising if they believe you. I would just ask whether people today would rather have been young in past, much harder times, particularly through two world wars
This post will doubtless be taken wrongly, but it doesn’t make its prognosis wrong.
So ‘harder in the past’ is the antidote to the little hope kids feel today, is it? Words, for once, fail me.
seems to me that years of repressing your feelings has definitely had some effects
your post is not taken ‘wrongly’ but you do seem to have a rather naive / simplistic view of the causes and effects of mental heath issues
although the ‘suffering’ of mental health issues may be ‘all in the mind’ as you put it,. the effects are often manifested as physical health issues as well.
and the causes are certainly not ‘all in the mind’
I agree with Hamish that Social Media & Smart Phones are a contributary factor,
but I think you also have to factor in the rise of ‘divisive’ politics, and the ‘billionaire’ class as a large contributing factor as well,…
where some political ‘actors’ and parties, along with the ultra-rich, encourage hate, persecution & discrimination, with the focus on greed and self, self, self…(basiclly, if you’re not ultra-successful, or ultra-popular,.. you’re nothing…)
rather than fostering an attitude of communal benefit from working together for the general good.
The whole of social media has been weaponised by it users so it cannot be regulated, it just needs to be removed or sadly AI might have to be used to regulate the content that human beings cannot control themselves from creating and distributing. It will all happen in seconds once “it’ becomes self aware, either that, if, “it” thinks it’s the norm, we are doomed.