The chairman of the health trust responsible for mental health in Cornwall says that a reduction in creative arts in schools could impact young people’s mental health.

Barbara Vann, chairman of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, made the comments at a meeting of Cornwall Council’s health and wellbeing board on Wednesday (September 4).

She was responding to a question from Labour councillor Cornelius Olivier, who asked whether the increased demand for mental health services among children and young people was a result of increased numbers of children suffering mental illness or a result of better recognition of such problems.

In responding she turned her attention to the national curriculum which she said was doing children “a great disservice”.

Dr Vann said: “There has always been a level of children’s mental ill health that has not been recognised.

“We didn’t take children’s anxieties seriously enough as adults, that is something we have recognised. What we require for your young people these days is very different from the situation that other people might remember, like people in this room.

“What is better is that we listen more to young people, we are taking notice of them and responding to help them.”

She said that while things had improved there was still work to be done.

“It is happening, but it is not happening fast enough,” she said.

Dr Vann, who was a headteacher for 23 years, said that more work was being done with health professionals working closely with schools to help children and young people.

But she added: “There has been a change to the school curriculum that denigrates creative arts. That has done our children a great disservice.”

She then explained that her own grandson was dyslexic, but “bright as a button” and found that academic subjects were more difficult due to his dyslexia.

However, access to creative subjects had been reduced in schools due to a shift in how the Government wants schools to teach.

“What is that going to do for his confidence?” she said.

“What could that potentially do to him in terms of mental health?

“I think as adults we should do more to look at this. As a society we need to look at that more seriously.”