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Mental health waiting times a “national disgrace”

This news post is over 6 years old
 

The majority of the country's health boards missed targets to provide children with specialist support - which has angered a campaign group

Waiting times for children to receive specialist mental health treatment have been described as a "national disgrace".

Latest figures have shown that three in 10 youngsters wait more than 18 weeks for treatment.

Eleven out of the country’s 14 health boards failed to meet the 18-week waiting time target from January to April, and 35 children had waited more than a year to be seen by a doctor.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition has highlighted that only 0.48% of the NHS budget is spent on specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and called for urgent action to improve treatment for young people.

“These latest waiting time figures demonstrate that we are continuing to fail many of our children and young people with mental health problems, a national disgrace,” a spokesman said.

“No longer can mental health be viewed as a Cinderella service and we must put money behind the rhetoric if we are to just keep pace with investment south of the border.

“It is clearly disappointing to note these newly released figures highlighting that the NHS in Scotland, including 11 of our health boards, are failing to meet what is already a lengthy waiting time. This is no coincidence given that a very small proportion of the overall NHS and mental health budget is being spent on addressing the needs of children and young people, and yet we know that three children in every classroom has a clinically diagnosable mental health problem.”

Mental health minister Maureen Watt said the government is working with health boards to recruit more specialists and had increase CAMHS staffing by 69%.

“While the average wait for treatment is ten weeks, many boards must improve their performance and I will continue to meet with those boards which fall short of our expectations,” she said.

“Our mental health strategy is investing £150 million into services over five years and to help reshape how services are delivered to the benefit of patients.

“Today’s figures make clear that where provision is embedded in the community, and working closely with the specialist services, that we see the best results. To build on this we’re working with partners, like COSLA, to help improve this community based provision for consistent care across the country.”

Alison Johnstone MSP, the Scottish Greens’ health spokesperson, says the figures should convince government ministers to look beyond the NHS and include mental health awareness in the school curriculum.

She said: “The fact that so many young people in Scotland have to struggle through mental health problems with little support or care, shows we’re letting them down. What’s worse is that those who have already taken the brave step by being diagnosed are not receiving the support they need on the NHS.

“How can we improve education outcomes when significant barriers to essential health services for our young people exist?”

 

Comments

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Fiona French
over 6 years ago
I feel dreadfully sad that so many young people are having to wait for so long to access mental health services. I am an adult who has been left badly damaged by prescribed drugs and am an active campaigner and member of many online support groups for those who are having huge difficulties trying to get off antidepressants, or who have been left badly damaged by them. We watch with dismay the increasing prescribing figures for antidepressants among teenagers in Scotland and elsewhere. We know the increased risk of suicide for teenagers and also for adults from these drugs. The existence of our community online is a direct result of the complete failure of the medical profession to address the issues of dependence, withdrawal and resulting iatrogenic harm. Last night a 16 year old came into one of our groups from Scotland. There he will be exposed to the most harrowing tales of drug damage. We as adult members have no knowledge of this young man or how vulnerable he may be. I do not feel comfortable that we are in this situation. It is bad enough for adults over 16 trying to research and find information on safe ways of tapering and to find out all the relevant facts about antidepressants about which we have all been so very much misled. Patients have been forced to become "experts" in this subject and we share this expertise. We have become more knowledgeable than many doctors on the subject. The medical profession does not engage in any way with the online community, we are kept at a very great distance. This means that there can be no meaningful exchange of information which only makes the whole situation worse. I believe the whole issue of mental health and mental health drugs is a complete mess, not just in Scotland but in many countries. It is time we in Scotland grappled with this issue.
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Sharon
over 6 years ago
Failure of the NHS is that they focus more on clinical and medical treatment and not on prevention! If they focused on preventing illness, then the NHS wouldn;t be in the state its in. The big question is really WHY are many children having mental health issues, until that is addressed the problem is just going to get worse!
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Stuart
over 6 years ago
and this is only a fraction of the challenge facing children and young people.CAMHS have raised the bar for mental health so far fewer children and young people are now eligible.Great that £150m is targeting this issue but over 5 years that's only £30m a year and Scotland has 32 local authorities.Sharon's point touches an important issue - just how much of this £150m is going to Third Sector organisations to put in place effective early intervention preventative measures especially for those children and young people with poor mental health no longer eligible to be seen by CAHMS?
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