Council pours cash into young people whose mental health problems have increased during Covid crisis

Council leader Pete Marland believes young people in MK have been "disproportionately affected" by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Demand for services that can help them has risen significantly during lockdown, he said.

This week the council announced it would be granting an extra £50,000 to the city's YiS youth counselling charity.

The cash will help YiS to tackle its waiting lists and help more young people get the mental health support they need.

Another £10,000 will be awarded to MK YMCA to enable a larger project to help young adults deal with the impact of Covid-19.

The funding has been announced as part of Milton Keynes Council’s £3m support package to help recovery from the pandemic. It is the single largest funding package announced by any council in the U.K. so far.

The new mental health cash is in addition to the extra funding to increase mental health provision for young

people spent by MK Council this year.

The council has already provided extra funding for YiS this year and also gives money to online counselling service Kooth.

Pete said: “Supporting vulnerable people is so important. Young people have been disproportionately affected

by Covid-19 in many ways, and this has resulted in an increasing demand for mental health services.”

He added: “I’m pleased that as part of our £3m package to help Milton Keynes recover from Covid-19, we are able to provide funding to increase capacity and enable YIS and MK YMCA to continue their valuable work as demand rises.”