May you stay Forever Young – caring for our children and young people

Billy, our parrot loves the blues. Whenever we ask Alexa to play some blues, he is in seventh heaven. He whistles along and is the best blues-playing parrot I have ever encountered in all my life. Billy is now 31 years old and has travelled the length and breadth of the UK with me. So last week we played some blues that really made him come alive – it was Bob Dylan’s recent album: ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’. If you haven’t heard it, you can find it here on YouTube. I would recommend a listen. For younger readers, Bob Dylan is an enduring music icon from the 60s. One of the first things I learnt to play and sing on the guitar was ‘Blowing in the Wind’. Dylan wrote this classic in 1962. In 1994, the song was ranked by the magazine ‘Rolling Stone’ at number 14 of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Its three chords certainly opened up a whole new world for my guitar playing over the last 50 odd years of playing and enjoying music. From a folk club in downtown Swansea in the 70s through to a balcony in Portugal’s mountains in 2022, and everything in between, I have continued to get great pleasure in playing my guitars and singing along to some classic songs. It’s safe to say that J and I love live music. She plays the piano, and I could listen to her play all day. But what we like most of all is going out and listening to live music. We have done this all over the UK and beyond.

And that’s what we did last Wednesday. We fought our way through gridlocked traffic that is Manchester’s norm these days, parked up and joined the queue to get into the Apollo concert hall. We were there to see the great man himself. At 81, Bob Dylan had decided to add an additional venue to his current Rough and Rowdy Ways UK tour. Ironically, we had unsuccessfully tried to get tickets for other concerts across the UK. When last week’s additional concert was announced, the tickets sold out within minutes of being released.

Dylan looked frail. He no longer played the guitar. He did, however, play some mean piano. There was no video backdrop, flying pigs, smoke or dancing girls. It was a straightforward dimly lit stage with Dylan and his band playing all his new music from the Rough and Rowdy Ways album. His voice was strong, but how he remembers all the words to songs that can be 9 or 17 minutes long is beyond me. For a couple of hours, it was blues music heaven.  Driving back through the still gridlocked Manchester traffic, was motoring hell.

Of course, Bob Dylan is someone from my youth. He was part of my rebellious period during adolescence. His songs of protest became my songs of protest. Although at the time I started smoking* and drinking, and on occasions, probably acting up. In all likelihood, my rebellious adolescence was rather tame. Which is just as well. During the first two decades of a person’s life course, we not only learn the most, but develop values and behaviours that shape our adult life. In some respects, this is why looking after our young people during this period in their life not only benefits them, but the rest of society too. Sadly, this is not always the case.

Last week, the British Medical Journal (BMJ), in collaboration with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, brought together a collection of research-based papers on adolescent wellbeing. You can find the collection here. It’s a big area to go at. In their introduction, the BMJ notes that there are 1.2 billion adolescents (young people aged 10-19 years old) in the world. They represent 16% of the world’s population, and 23% of the population in low income countries. However, they are a group of the population who often receive limited attention and resources from global initiatives such as universal health coverage and sustainable development. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) have long called for action on reducing poverty and inequality, both of which impact upon a child’s future, and can lead to health inequalities in later life. As well as prevention, delivering early intervention services to families in need not only reduces the overall burden on the NHS, but makes good economic sense too. It’s estimated that for every £1 spent in this way there will be a return of £4 to the economy. This ratio will rise over time if the investment is made when folk are in the childhood and youth.

We are also at an interesting stage of transformation as the new Integrated Care Systems pass their first 100 days mark. The requirement to collaborate and integrate must include professions, agencies and communities outside of the traditional providers of health and social care. This is particularly so when considering interventions that support the wellbeing of adolescents and their families. Young people are not on some kind of conveyer belt to becoming an adult. However, supporting and investing in their wellbeing is likely to result in an adult population best able to meet the challenges of a rapidly-changing world. And goodness do we need them to be able to do just that. Our work today will help them live fulfilling, creative, resilient and confident lives in their tomorrows. In that sense, they are our future too.

But for tonight, J and I will be going back to the future. We are off to the Winter Gardens to see ‘Wall of Floyd’, a tribute Pink Floyd band, a group first formed in 1965. It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.     

* I haven't smoked for many years now!