NHS Mental Health Services Reportedly Failing Young People Facing Mental Crisis

NHS services for the growing numbers of children who have tried to harm themselves, commit suicide or having a breakdown is woefully substandard and risk prolonging their suffering, according to their psychiatrists.

More than seven out of 10 (72 percent) of the consultant psychiatrists who specialize in treating children and adolescents say that NHS care for children below the age of 18 and experiencing a crisis in their mental health is either inadequate (58 percent) or very inadequate (14 percent).

Only 19 percent of the psychiatrists said NHS services were adequate and just 9% said they were good. This is based on a survey undertaken for The Guardian.  Just 253 of about 2,000 specialist psychiatrists working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) care took part in the survey.

Experts said that the results of the survey are further proof of how poor NHS services are for the soaring number of children and young people struggling with critical psychological and psychiatric conditions.

The survey results come as pressure on mental health services for children is increasing, with figures from NHS Digital showing that the number of children under the age of 18 years who attend A&E in England due to a mental health crisis has risen by more than half in the last five years.

Children who turn up as a result of psychiatric conditions such as psychosis more than doubled from 6,950 in 2010-2011 to 14,917 in 2014-2015, while the number of those seeking treatment after harming themselves rose from 13,504 to 17,019 over the same period of time.

One major problem was A&E staff being unsympathetic to young people who end up there seeking care in the midst of their mental health crisis, Healtherpeople reported.

Three out of four psychiatrists said that the inadequacy of child and adolescent mental health crisis services meant that the young person's mental state could deteriorate further, while 71 percent said it resulted in an increased chance of risky behavior, including impulsive behavior or aggression to others.

Two thirds (66 percent) of the psychiatrists noted that a failure to give young people in crisis immediate expert help means that psychiatric problems face the threat of becoming more critical as a result.

Services for children in crisis were also hampered by a lack of in-patient beds for the children, delays in their condition being assessed and a postcode lottery in out-of-hours crisis care, in which a psychiatrist or mental health nurses comes and assess the young person, Says Peter Hindley who undertook the research.

Hindley added that the reduction to early intervention services provided by the NHS and local councils invariably meant children's mental health problems worsened because they were not detected or treated quickly enough, often leaving schools to pick up the pieces. Councils' spending on early intervention schemes fell from £3.2 billion a year in 2010-2011 to just £1.4bn in 2014-2015.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, recently said CAMHS services were the NHS's greatest area of weakness across the range of care it provides.

In responds to the findings, he said, "Every child in crisis should get the support they need, which is why we are investing £1.4bn in children and young people's mental health care, and why every local area is transforming their services."

Hunt added that there are a record number of CAMHS beds and there will be liaison mental health services in every A&E by the year 2020.