Jeremy Hunt Believes Children's Mental Health Care Is The NHS's 'Biggest Weakness' | HuffPost Life

'We are letting down too many families.'

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Life editor at HuffPost UK

Jeremy Hunt believes children’s mental health services are the NHS’ “biggest single area of weakness”.

The health secretary has pledged to improve the diagnosis and treatment of children who are suffering from mental health issues.

He said problems need to be identified earlier to avoid children suffering in silence.

“I think we are letting down too many families and not intervening early enough when there is a curable mental health condition, which we can do something about when a child is eight or nine, but if you leave it until they are 15 or 16, it’s too late,” he told the Health Service Journal.

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Reflecting on the work of children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), Hunt continued: “I think this is possibly the biggest single area of weakness in NHS provision at the moment.

“There are too many tragedies because children develop eating disorders or psychosis or chronic depression, which is then very difficult to put right as they get older.”

Hunt also said he wants CAMHS to work more closely with schools, mentioning the possible need for full-time CAMHS workers in schools.

Commenting on Hunt’s statement, Dr Marc Bush, chief policy advisor at Young Minds, a mental health charity for children, told The Huffington Post UK: “We welcome Jeremy Hunt’s commitment to improve links between CAMHS and schools.

“It’s vital that teachers can consult mental health experts about their concerns, and that if a child needs specialist support they can be referred quickly and smoothly.

“But the reality is that far more needs to be done. Many local CAMHS services are severely overstretched, with long waiting-times and high thresholds for treatment.

“The parents and young people we work with worry that the extra money that the government has invested is not making a difference on the front line.”

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At the beginning of October 2016, it was revealed that nearly a quarter of a million children and young people were receiving mental health care in England

The Guardian revealed 235,189 people aged 18 and under get specialist care, after looking at data covering 60% of mental health trusts in England.

Among this number, 11,849 were boys and girls aged five and under, and 53,659 were aged between six and 10. There were more boys who received care (130,395) than girls (104,522).

At the time, Sarah Brennan, chief executive of Young Minds told HuffPost UK: “These figures should act as a wake-up call. As a society, we need to do far more to prevent mental health problems from developing in the first place.

“We urgently need to rebalance our education system, so that schools are encouraged to prioritise wellbeing and not just exam results.

“There also needs to be far more investment in early intervention, so that problems are dealt with when they first emerge.”

Before You Go

This Is How Bad It Is To Be A Young Person With Mental Health Issues In 2016

Nearly a quarter of children and young people are being turned away by providers(01 of09)

Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) are turning away nearly a quarter (23%) of all children and young people referred to them for help by parents, GPs, teachers and others.

This was often because their condition was not deemed serious enough or suitable for specialist mental health treatment. (credit:© Naufal MQ via Getty Images)

You might not be able to access specialist support if your BMI isn’t low enough(02 of09)

CentreForum noted that in some cases, support for anorexia was denied unless a young person was under a certain BMI threshold. (credit:Donald Iain Smith via Getty Images)

You might not be able to get specialist support if you’re hearing voices(03 of09)

Criteria in one area suggested those “hearing voices in the context of mild anxiety, low self-esteem or low mood” should see their GP or voluntary sector counselling service and only be referred to CAMHS if they “heard voices that command particular behaviours”. (credit:H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock via Getty Images)

You might not be able to access specialist support if you've only expressed suicidal thoughts once(04 of09)

CentreForum found one CAMHS would refer people to more generic support unless they had “enduring suicidal ideation” (i.e. they had felt they wanted to commit suicide on more than one occasion). (credit:Jacques LOIC via Getty Images)

You might not be able to get specialist support if your condition hasn't reached a high level of severity(05 of09)

In some areas, referrals were not accepted unless the young person's condition was “having a major impact on the child’s life such as an inability to attend school or involving a major breakdown in family relationships”. (credit:Arvydas Kniuk?ta via Getty Images)

Maximum waiting times for services have more than doubled in the last two years(06 of09)

CentreForum's analysis of NHS Benchmarking data found that the average of the maximum waiting times for all providers has more than doubled since 2011/12. (credit:Hero Images via Getty Images)

Maximum and average waiting times vary greatly(07 of09)

Respondents reported maximum waiting times ranging from four weeks to over two and a half years. The average of these longest waiting times for each service was nearly 10 months for treatment to begin.

Average waiting times for different providers also varied widely, from two weeks in Cheshire to 19 weeks in North Staffordshire. The average waiting time in Gateshead is five times as long as for those in nearby Tyneside. Similarly, waits in London vary widely from two months in Kensington and Chelsea to nearly six months in neighbouring Brent. (credit:Aaron McCoy via Getty Images)

There were also 'hidden waits' concealed in average waiting times(08 of09)

CentreForum has uncovered that the median of the maximum waiting times for all providers was 26 weeks (6 months) for a first appointment and nearly ten months (42 weeks) for the start of treatment.

Some providers did not even measure waiting times at all, meaning that some patients could even be waiting longer than this. (credit:Jupiterimages via Getty Images)

Where you live can affect how much is spent on your treatment(09 of09)

CentreForum’s analysis of regional expenditure on mental health also revealed a North/South divide, with northern regions spending more on services while capacity problems exist in the South. (credit:Sverrir Thorolfsson Iceland via Getty Images)

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uk parents Children Mental Health mental wellbeing young minds matter

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