Child mental health referrals up 26% in five years

The number of referrals to child and adolescent mental health services in England has increased by 26% over the past five years.

Its report also reveals one in four referrals was either rejected or deemed inappropriate for treatment.

Out of 60 providers questioned, 54 gave a response.

Based on these figures, mental health referrals for under 18s increased from 157,000 in 2013-14 to 198,280 in 2017-18.

According to data from more providers - 50 in total - for 2017-18 alone, children and adolescent mental health referrals topped 264,000.

Read more about this here

Do you have experience of mental health services on the NHS? Why do you think referrals are up? Are we doing enough to support young people's mental health?

Reply 1

Drewski

Original post by Spirithorse

Why do you think referrals are up?

Diagnoses and understanding of what mental health problems are have vastly improved.
Treatment hasn't kept up.

Reply 2

ThomH97

Social media and advertising aimed at kids.

These things are designed to attack your self esteem, then offer you a temporary reprieve if you use their product. This psychology works on adults to the point that we need gambling and alcohol warnings, and the sugar tax. The same psychological tactics are being used on kids who are far more vulnerable.

Exam stress is another factor, but the government has been trying to portray apprenticeships as equally viable options to university. Not sure how well that's going to work, but if you want ever increasing numbers of kids aiming for university then they are going to be stressing out over the exams they're told will shape the rest of their lives.

Reply 3

Tomadoi

What kind of mental problems do they have

I'm a girl who thinks shes a boy?

I'm White but think I'm Black.

Reply 4

username2998742

Original post by Tomadoi

What kind of mental problems do they have

I'm a girl who thinks shes a boy?

Not a mental problem matey. It says here that it isn't a mental illness anymore

Reply 5

Beth_H

The bit about referrals veing rejected is particularly concerning - when children who are physically harming themselves aren't considered 'unwell enough' to receive treatment, there's obviously something very wrong with the way the system is working.

Reply 6

qq88

I think the NHS has too much on its plate to provide adequate mental support for young people. So a lot of children's charities and non-profits are taking the lead, like The Children's Society and Action for Children.

Reply 7

username521617

Alternate take: We are over-diagnosing mental health problems. While there are children out there who need clinical help, I think we have a growing tendency to see mental health problems that aren't actually there, perhaps due in part to this increased awareness. I've seen it before - perfectly normal kids being considered for drugs because they're unhappy, erratic or too emotional from time to time.

Maybe that's the reason for a lot of the rejections?

Reply 8

yudothis

Original post by Dandaman1

Ritalin in response to the ADHD craze destroyed and is still doing so, so many kids, particularly boys as they are the ones 'diagnosed' with it, in the US in particular. And made big pharma $$$$$$$$$

I would say however, that with social media I strongly believe that mental health problems among children are going up.