What our young people are campaigning for

The number of young people (aged 16-24) reporting a mental health condition has soared in recent years, from 2.5% in 2011, to 15.4% in 2022. 

SAMH's Young People’s Panel (YPP) is calling for mental health link workers to be introduced in schools across Scotland. 

Scotland’s young people need mental health link workers in schools to ensure that they can always ask once and get help fast, free from stigma. 

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About the panel

SAMH’s (YPP) is made up of a dedicated group of 19 young people, aged 14-25, who are united by their passion to transform youth mental health in Scotland. 

This campaign is led by the YPP, with support from SAMH.  

Poppy, 19, from Kirkcaldy, a Young People's Panel member, said: 

“All too often young people experience a blurred pathway for mental health support. Our campaign aims to solve this, by providing a non-clinical link worker in schools, to ensure every young person can access support. 

“There was definitely a need for more support at my school. I often found that I didn’t want to be more of a burden to my guidance teacher who was already overwhelmed, so I often bottled everything up."

Our campaign

The YPP is campaiging for mental health link workers in schools. Mental health link workers would be a non-clinical role, working with young people experiencing mental health difficulties to help identify and connect them with the right support for their needs.  This could be specific mental health support, but may also be linking to other services, such as bereavement, addiction, or whole family support. All of this will be tailored to the needs of the individual and local services. 

In a recent survey* of more than 400 young people, school staff, and parents/carers - developed by the YPP - support for mental health link workers in schools was high, with 82% of respondents saying that they thought this would help improve pupil wellbeing. In the survey:

• Almost a third (30%) of young people told us that they wouldn’t feel safe talking to anyone in school about their mental health.   

• More than a quarter (26%) of young people told us that the mental health support in their school was poor or very poor. 

• Only 56% of school staff told us they felt confident or very confident in supporting pupils with their mental health.   

Cameron, 22, from Motherwell is a member of the Young People’s Panel. He said: 

“There’s definitely a need for better access to mental health care in schools. I think that by investing in this, most young people across Scotland could benefit from help in the day-to-day lives. 

“I’ve struggled with my mental health since I started high school when I was twelve, and although I was lucky enough to get support from CAMHS, I know underfunded services are and that not everyone gets this. I would have loved to have access to a mental health link worker when I was in school, someone who could provide me with a safe space to explore and heal. 

“I hope that decision makers will hear our voices and act, and that people will get behind this campaign.” 

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*The survey designed by members of the SAMH Young People's Panel with support from SAMH staff. It was carried out between December 2025 and January 2026. It was issued to schools, local authorities and through our public communications channels via SAMH socials (Instagram, X and Facebook), YPP panel members and emails to supporters. 437 people chose to respond, including 201 young people (aged 25 and under), 124 school staff and 112 parents & carers. We have not weighted the data and we recognise that the sub-samples are small.