College principals and education leaders are appealing to the government for a rise in mental health funding for young people, following a 156pc rise in referrals at a local college in just one year.

Whilst this rise in referrals is rather shocking, it does prove that the discussion surrounding mental health is becoming more widespread.

This is resulting in people feeling much more able to openly talk about their problems and reach out to try and receive help.

The issue here, however, is that there simply are not enough services available to offer this support.

Young college students are definitely an area for concern but primary and high schools also need to make mental health initiatives a priority.

A recognition and further exploration of any issues early on are surely essential to addressing any problems that could worsen, as the child gets older.

With one in three children suffering from a mental health condition it seems only right that teachers should be trained in these areas, in order to help to identify any problems.

Government funding is very much the biggest part of the on-going issue but if people were better informed then perhaps things could be prevented. If this was the case when I was at school then my own experience with mental health could have been a lot easier.

However, even at high school sadly my symptoms were not recognised as being a mental health condition.

Forty per cent of our illnesses are mental rather than physical, so it's about time that NHS funding considered this.