Nearly a quarter of a million children and young people are receiving mental health care in England, figures have shown.
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).
“It’s staggering that so many children and young people are in need of specialist mental health care,” Sarah Brennan, chief executive of YoungMinds told The Huffington Post 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.”
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Katja Kircher via Getty Images
Brennan continued: “To start with, 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.
“Cutting local authority budgets on things like social workers, educational psychologists and support programmes for parents is incredibly short-sighted, and puts a huge burden on services further up the chain.”
The NSPCC’s 24-hour helpline dealt with 19,481 sessions for young people contemplating taking their life in 2015, the annual report ‘It Turned Out Someone Did Care’ revealed.
That’s the equivalent of one session every half an hour, or 53 a day.
“It is deeply disturbing that in the past year nearly 20,000 children and young people contacted Childline because they felt so deeply unhappy that many of them wanted to take their own lives,” said Dame Esther Rantzen, president of Childline.
“It is crucial that we ask ourselves why children in this country feel so lonely, and so desperate, that they have to turn to Childline for help and support.”
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)
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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.
You might not be able to access specialist support if your BMI isn’t low enough(02 of09)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
Useful websites and helplines:
Mind, open Monday to Friday,9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393
Samaritans offers a listeningservice which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill.)
Get Connected is a freeadvice service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email: help@getconnected.org.uk