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Happy Families?

  Young People in South East have more family problems than rest of UK

Young people in the South East seek help with relationships, especially family ones, more frequently than young people in the rest of the UK, show figures released by Get Connected today. Although the South East makes up just over a tenth of calls to Get Connected, it contributes over 21% of calls regarding relationships.

Across the UK, relationships seem to cause the most problems for people between 11 and 25 but this issue is of even greater importance in the South East. After family relationships, problems with a girlfriend or boyfriend seem to give young people particular cause to phone a national helpline such as Get Connected.

Dulcie Ireland, External Affairs Manager at Get Connected, said:

“For the majority of young people home is their ‘safe place’ – the one place they feel secure when they are having problems in their life. So when there are problems at home it can seem like there is nowhere else to turn. Sadly, many other young people do not have secure homes and it is easy to become isolated without family support.

Young people in the South East are especially likely to contact the helpline having run away from home or place of care, so Get Connected is currently targeting the area in a marketing campaign to encourage young people to seek help before their problems reach crisis point and drive them away from home.”

Between May 17th and May 23^rd, anyone who knows of a young person needing help can pick up a Get Connected card at any of The Carphone Warehouse stores in the South East. Young people should also  look out for Get Connected posters and cards at school and college.

Natalie, who is 13, contacted Get Connected because she felt that her mother preferred her younger sister to her. This was making her unhappy so, on the advice of another helpline, she had tried to talk to her mother about it. However, her mother had recently started seeing her first boyfriend since she had divorced Natalie’s father and didn’t seem concerned with Natalie’s problem. Natalie wanted to talk to someone her own age about her relationship with her sister and mother, so Get Connected texted her the details of a local drop-in centre and connected her to a helpline staffed by young people who would talk over the situation with her.

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AND THE FREE HELPLINE NUMBER – 0808 808 4994

Notes to editors:

1. The vision of Get Connected is that every young person in the UK can find the help they need to support their physical and emotional well-being.
2. Get Connected is a UK wide telephone and email helpline that finds young people the best help whatever the problem. Over 1,300 young people contact Get Connected every month about a range of issues including emotional problems, physical and mental health, sexuality, abuse and running away.
3. Statistics are derived from 4700 calls during 2004 to April 13^th. 21.1% of all calls regarding relationships were from the South East.
4. For more information about Get Connected please visit www.getconnected.org.uk
5. Available for interview: Dulcie Ireland, External Affairs Manager, Get Connected, 020 8896 4774,