Health
Teenage mental health support follows Molly Russell death
A rock album is to raise funds and awareness of teenage mental health in memory of Molly Russell.
Molly died from an act of self-harm aged 14 after being deluged by horrific material on social media.
The charity Parenting Mental Health supports and advises parents on how to combat issues such as depression and anxiety.
It is hoped the album will publicise the charity and how it can help parents help their children.
The album is called Unsocial Media.
It is available across several digital platforms including Spotify, iTunes, and Google.
All the money from downloads of the title track will go to Parenting Mental Health – which is accessible via its website
https://parentingmentalhealth.org/
Singer-songwriter, Andy Griffin, 53 from Thaxted, better known as an award-winning photographer, plays all the instruments on the tracks.
Singer-songwriter, Andy Griffin, 53 from Thaxted, better known as an award-winning photographer, plays all the instruments on the tracks.
He is supporting Parenting Mental Health because he has a teenage daughter of his own and says he knows that the charity’s work has saved other children from Molly’s plight.
He says the book Never Let Go – How to Parent Your Child Through Mental Illness written by the charity’s founder Suzanne Alderson has helped bring young people back from a deadly brink.
“I can relate to it,” Andy Griffin said.
“It is a nightmare. Young people and their families go through a really, really tough time.
“I am giving all the proceeds from the title track to the charity.
“If the music is played internationally, it could raise a lot of money but if it makes people aware of Parenting Mental Health and the danger of social media to teenagers, it will have been effective.
“We released a video (to go with the album) on November 11 and a few people have left messages for me on Facebook saying it is scary.
“The girl in the video is the 13-year-old daughter of my film-maker colleague who made the video, and it is quite hard-hitting. People have messaged me to say: ‘I have a nine-year-old daughter – have we got all this to come?’
“We all know this is going on and it is not a case of let us ban social media but let us educate the kids and let us restrict their access to it while they are still at school.
“Back in our day, you would not allow people to go to the video shop and hire an 18 video when they were eleven or twelve but today, they can watch whatever they want on their phones.
“Even if you put family restrictions on, they can just access material through these apps and it’s just terrible.”
Parenting Mental Health has information online and they have a team which partners parents.
The charity has support including a nine-week course called Partnering not Parenting, a mentoring programme and a listening circle.
The book is available as an audio book and paperback.
It includes advice on food, sleep, exercise and home environment, the importance of self-care for parents, navigating relationships with partners, friends, family and communicating with professionals.
An inquest in September found that Molly Russell, from Harrow, North London, died in November 2017 from “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.”
The coroner, Andrew Walker said it was not safe to rule that the young girl’s death was suicide. He said the “particularly graphic” content Molly saw “romanticised acts of self-harm”.
It “normalised her condition” and focused on a “limited and irrational view without any counterbalance of normality”.
He said it sought to isolate and discourage discussion with people who could have helped her and instead tended to portray self-harm and suicide as an inevitable consequence of a condition that could not be recovered from.
Since Molly’s death, her father Ian has campaigned for better protection against potentially dangerous social media algorithms.
