REPORTS of anxiety among young people in Clacks have increased dramatically in the past year, with efforts ongoing in ramp up wellbeing support.

Wee County elected representatives will this week hear about the ongoing work within the Driving Change in Mental Health for Children and Families Transformation Project.

The project recently introduced a digital mental health service for all 10-18 year olds with avenues of support being brought together under Mental Health and Wellbeing in Clacks branding.

Last week saw a web-seminar for parents and carers, as well as those working with children and young people, on the services available with the most recent addition offered by Kooth Digital Health.

Councillors on the People Committee will receive a report about the project on Thursday, September 16, with summaries on two mental health and wellbeing surveys from June 2020 and 2021.

These show a "significant difference between the national norms and the Clackmannanshire population with 61 per cent of our school aged population scoring 'high' or 'very high' on the total difficulties scale".

According to the documents, the number of primary school children reported as restless and overactive has more than doubled and twice as many are reported to be having temper tantrums.

Three times as many children are reported as having more worries and four times more are reported as having lots of fears.

In secondary school, 81 per cent of parents felt their child has poor attention and 72 per cent reported levels of 'distractibility' and many worries.

More than half reported physical symptoms such as head and stomach pains and half were reported as having lots of fears.

Responses from young people showed 67 per cent felt restless, 55 per cent worried a lot, 65 per cent felt nervous or lost confidence easily.

Council papers said: "The significant difference from last June has been a four-fold increase in reports of children with 'temper tantrums' and a four-fold increase in children reported as restless or overactive.

"Responses from the survey this year indicate that children and young people in Clackmannanshire continue to have a significant level of mental health and wellbeing difficulties compared to national norms."

The mental health transformation project continues to be developed across nine workstreams to address the issues.

This includes counselling in schools, which is available for 10-18 year olds, the Creative Therapeutic Interventions for Children Service for 5-9s, digital services for 16-26 year olds, the development of "one door" community spaces, a community autism spectrum disorder assessment pathway and more.

Staff at the local authority will also continue to develop partnership opportunities and multi-disciplinary teams "in order that the biggest impact can be made in the lives of children, young people and their families".

For an online directory of mental health services, visit bit.ly/3C2yI2C.