Rise in complex issues for children at activity centres

Special centres for at-risk students are seeing a spike in children with mental health problems such as anxiety and self-harming. Activity centre directors meeting in Wellington this week say teenagers are being sent to them with increasingly complex problems and they need specialist staff to help. The 14 government-funded centres work with children in their early teens until they are ready to return to regular school. Our education correspondent, John Gerritsen filed this report.