GPs have revealed that children and young people who are anxious, depressed or are self-harming are being denied help from overwhelmed NHS child and adolescent mental health services.
The current state of CAMHS care is laid bare in a survey for the youth mental health charity stem4 of 1,001 GPs across the UK who have sought urgent help for under-18s who are struggling mentally.
CAMHS teams, already unable to cope with the rising need for treatment before the pandemic struck, have become even more overloaded because of the impact of the last two years on youth mental health.
Shared with the Guardian, the stem4 findings also show that in some areas it takes children and young people two years after being referred by their GP to start receiving help.
The widespread inability to access CAMHS care is leading to young people’s already fragile mental health deteriorating even further and then self-harming, dropping out of school, feeling uncared for and having to seek help at A&E.
Many GPs were scathing about CAMHS provision in their area. Some said problems accessing services means they are unsafe or even dangerous, because many under-18s get worse while they wait and can feel angry, overlooked and let down by being left without specialist help.
Dr Nihara Krause, the founder of stem4, said: “As a clinician it is particularly worrying that children and young people with psychosis, eating disorders and even those who have just tried to take their own life are condemned to such long waits. It is truly shocking to learn from this survey of GPs’ experiences of dealing with CAMHS services that so many vulnerable young people in desperate need of urgent help with their mental health are being forced to wait for so long – up to two years – for care they need immediately.
“Delayed treatment increases risk and you can expect problems in application to study or work, relationship issues, other emerging co-morbid mental health issues, for example depression, with increased vulnerability to self-harm, anxiety with panic attacks and so on.”
