Mental health crisis laid bare as new data shows 100s of children being failed

Hundreds of children with diagnosable mental health disorders are being failed by the NHS, damning data suggests.

A nationwide snapshot shows young people in desperate need are often not able to access a basic service in a time of crisis.

It reveals how 1,225 children and young people with emotional difficulties had been referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for help, and followed them up over 18 months to measure progress.

They were found to have high levels of mental health needs with 67% scoring very high for at least one emotional disorder, most commonly depression or an anxiety disorder. Despite this, only 11% received a clinical diagnosis of an emotional disorder from CAMHS – the name for NHS services that assess and treat young people with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties.

In “shocking” findings just 44% had their referral accepted, and 35% required a re-referral, suggesting that there were delays in receiving help.

One year after their referral, those in the study did not seem to improve. Their mental health difficulties continued to remain at a severe level, with high levels of self-reported and parent-reported mental health symptoms, functional impairment, and self-harm thoughts and behaviour, even at 12-months follow-up.

After 18-months less than half had been offered any treatment or intervention.

The data comes from the STADIA trial, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, led by experts from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, and was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Professor Kapil Sayal, chief investigator said: “We are very concerned that many children and young people with high levels of mental health needs, particularly conditions such as depression and anxiety disorders, for which NICE-recommended evidence-based interventions are available, are struggling to access help and have their difficulties appropriately recognised.

“One year is a very long time in a child’s life – delays in accessing the right care mean that their difficulties and distress, and the associated impact on their day-to-day lives and activities, are being unnecessarily prolonged.”

The study suggests the reality for those trying to access timely mental health support could be much worse than thought.

It also shows there has been no progress on promises to reform creaking mental health services despite the number of young people in contact doubling in five years.

The NHS said it was committed to ensuring more young people who need support can access services.

But with an increasing number developing mental health problems, services are drowning under the weight of demand. There are now some 1.6 million people waiting for mental health treatment and around 800,000 adults and 450,000 children and young people for secondary services.

The Express By Your Side Campaign was laucnhed to shatter taboos and put mental health at the heart of the national conversation.

It shone a spotlight on the crisis, prompting ministers to recognise for the first time the emergency facing children and young people who were forced to suffer in silence in an emergency exacerbated by Covid and successive lockdowns. Our crusade received widespread praise, including from former Health Secretary Sajid Javid who called it “brilliant at raising awareness of this issue”.

But four years on, little has changed, and in some parts of the country as few as one in five young people who need mental health treatment are being seen as the NHS struggles to deal with the task at hand.

Professor Sayal said: “It needs to be kept in mind that the time period of the study (reflecting referrals to CAMHS between 2019 and 2021) spanned the pandemic, with associated national lockdown and school closures – a time when many children and young people experienced greater levels of uncertainty, stress and mental health difficulties.

“Over the past few years, referrals to CAMHS have gone up considerably, which unfortunately has meant that not everyone who could benefit from support has been able to receive timely help and support.”

Parent and researcher Colleen Ewart said: “We can and must do better for this generation of children and young people and those to come. Reducing delays in accessing the right help quickly is essential to save untold suffering (often life-long) for children, young people and their families.”

An NHS spokesman said: “While the NHS is treating over 56% more young people than pre-pandemic and expanding services as quickly as we possibly can, we know there is much more to do to reduce long waits for patients and ensure every young person who needs it can access specialist mental health care.

“As part of this journey to improving access, we have recruited an extra 40,000 mental health staff and plans are in place to ensure more than half of pupils have earlier support through an NHS mental health team in their school or college – providing evidence-based support for common mental disorders.”