{"id":243137,"date":"2021-09-24T07:47:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T07:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=243137"},"modified":"2021-09-25T06:04:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T06:04:39","slug":"childrens-nhs-mental-health-referrals-double-in-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=243137","title":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s NHS mental health referrals double in pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Gregory \u2013 The Guardian Sept 23, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Record numbers of children and young people are seeking access to NHS<\/a> mental health services, figures show, as the devastating toll of the pandemic is revealed in a new analysis.<\/p>\n

In just three months, nearly 200,000 young people have been referred to mental health services \u2013 almost double pre-pandemic levels, according to the report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.<\/p>\n

Experts say the figures show the true scale of the impact of the last 18 months on children and young people across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese alarming figures reflect what I and many other frontline psychiatrists are seeing in our clinics on a daily basis,\u201d said Dr Elaine Lockhart, the college\u2019s child and adolescent faculty chair. \u201cThe pandemic has had a devastating effect on the nation\u2019s mental health, but it\u2019s becoming increasingly clear that children and young people are suffering terribly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The college analysed NHS Digital data on mental health referrals for children and young people aged 18 and under. It found that between April and June this year, 190,271 children aged 18 and under were referred to children and young people\u2019s mental health services \u2013 almost twice the number (97,342) referred during the same period in 2019.<\/p>\n

Urgent referrals had also risen steeply. From April to June in 2019, 5,219 children and young people were referred for urgent care. This rose to 8,552 in 2021, the college said.<\/p>\n

At the end of June, 340,694 people were in contact with children and young people\u2019s mental health services, up from 225,480 in June 2019.<\/p>\n

Lockhart said early help for children and young people would be \u201ckey to recovery\u201d as she called on the newly appointed education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, to prioritise children\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n

Schools should have plans in place to respond to pupils\u2019 mental health needs, she added. There must also be more investment in staff training to improve the rollout of mental health support teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly intervention is key to recovery,\u201d said Lockhart. \u201cSchools have a critical role to play in this and the education secretary must do all that he can to prioritise pupils\u2019 mental health. Children\u2019s mental health services must also be properly funded and properly staffed if we are to treat the ever-growing number needing mental health care. Without investment we run the risk of many more needing crisis help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eating disorder treatment services were seeing more patients than ever, the college said, but it also warned of an \u201cunprecedented\u201d number of children still waiting for care.<\/p>\n

One mother whose teenage daughter relapsed into anorexia during the pandemic, who did not wish to be named, said: \u201cThe pandemic has been devastating for my daughter and for our family. The disruption to her normal routines and socialising really affected her recovery. She was spending a lot less time doing the things she enjoys and a lot more time alone with her thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, she relapsed, becoming so unwell she was admitted to hospital and sectioned. After 72 days in hospital with no specialist eating disorder bed becoming available, we brought her home where I had to tube-feed her for 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter urgently needed specialist help for this life-threatening illness, but services are completely overwhelmed because so many young people need help. It\u2019s a terrifying situation for patients and families to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do our leaders realise the full impact of lockdowns and other measures to contain this supposed \u2018pandemic\u2019? Or is this actually one of their aims? Do they want to inflict psychological harm on a whole generation while they are still at their most vulnerable?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-Health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243140,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243137\/revisions\/243140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}