Children's Mental Health in Crisis

NHS Children Psychiatrists Shortage

And what that means

In recent years there has been a major focus on mental health in the united kingdom, however this has come up various problems particularly with shortages which has lead to long waiting lists and high risk people being turned away. There is no greater example of this than with children.

The data from The Office of National Statistics published a report detailing that in 2015: 168 males and 63 females between the ages of 10-19 committed suicide in 2015, the highest number since 2001; however this may not be all the cases due to social taboos surrounding announcing children's deaths as suicides and lack of evidence required to classify a death as a suicide and also some missing children may have taken their own lives but their body may not have been found. The study also found that 22% of victims suffered bullying and around 15% suffered from abuse and neglect; there was also a link between exam stress and social media. Of course these figures are horrifying for everyone and by more recent news this situation could worsen in the foreseeable future.

This is represented in the headline talking about how only 942 child psychiatrists are hired by the NHS which is the second lowest since the NHS started recording this statistic in 2009. The lowest being 235 in July 2017. This is of serious concern as it means that children that have shown signs of self harm either being turned away or putting on a waiting list of up to 18 months something which could have fatal consequences.

It is estimated by The Royal College of Psychiatrists that a further 463 CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) trained psychiatrists will be needed in order to meet demand in the near future however this would be a tough task since this is nearly another 50% on the current number; and with current trends of the number of psychiatrists falling it is unlikely for them to meet demand. This is likely to hinder the prime ministers plan forthcoming long term plan for the NHS which would partially focus on improving mental health for children.

Children's mental health is a complicated issue with often multitude of factors to consider however the statistics show that we as a society are failing them.

• 10% of children aged between 5-16 have a clinically diagnosable mental health problem.
• 70% of children and adolescents have not had appropriate interventions at a young age.
• 1 in 4 people are prone to suffer from mental health issues at any given year.
• 50% of mental health issues establish themselves by the age of 14

The fact 70% of children with mental health problems does not receive an early intervention is shocking and it causes further problems down the line often with more serious and complex mental health problems; so by not sufficiently funding children's mental health funding the government are causing more problems further down the line.

So what can you do if you know or are a child is in crisis:

If the danger is immediate call the police or the Samaritans on 116 123.

However if the danger is less immediate recommend visiting a mental health centre or get into contact with your doctor, or one of the multitude online services which have more specifically trained staff to help.