More than 150,000 children have been waiting at least two years to get mental health treatment on the NHS, figures reveal.
Experts warned long waits are keeping young people off school and stopping them entering the workforce. Some are being sectioned in “traumatic” hospitals as their conditions deteriorate while they struggle to get care.
Analysis of NHS data by the charity Mind shows that 609,000 people under 18 are on mental health waiting lists with conditions such as eating disorders, anxiety and self-harm. One in four of these have been waiting more than two years for “meaningful” care such as a treatment plan, therapy sessions or an appointment with a psychiatrist. The government has acknowledged that long waits have been “normalised”.
NHS data, covering the period up until the end of February, also shows the overall number of people seeking mental health help is the highest on record. Some 2.05 million people in England are in contact with mental health services, up from 1.59 million three years ago, and nearly half of these are children and young adults.
Health leaders are urging the government to prioritise mental health spending as part of its ten-year NHS plan. Research from Hanover Communications shows it is as important to the public as cancer.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been criticised for dropping key mental health targets from NHS guidance and admitted the proportion of NHS budgets spent on mental health is set to fall in the next 12 months.
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Gemma Byrne, the policy and campaigns manager at Mind, said: “The number of people in touch with mental health services is the highest it’s been in almost a decade. And of the 600,000-plus young people on waiting lists, a quarter of them have already been waiting for more than two years for support. These figures come a matter of weeks after the government confirmed a drop in NHS spending on mental health. When people are left waiting too long for support, their mental health gets even worse.”
Byrne said that 52,000 people were sectioned under the Mental Health Act, and these people “are often refused help in the community only to be detained in hospital against their will when they become more unwell”. They are urging parliament to vote through amendments to the Mental Health Bill aimed at improving hospital care, including ensuring young people get more of a say in their care.
Patients have described how their time on children’s mental health wards was “traumatising”. Freya, now 21, said: “I wondered how I would ever get well again being in hospital. I was restrained multiple times a day and injected against my will.”
A separate poll of 1,738 people in England found that improving the quality of mental health care is as important as improving cancer care. When asked about the NHS issues they wanted to see prioritised, mental health and cancer were ranked by 50 per cent of people as important. However, it has emerged that the share of NHS spending on mental health is set to fall in the next financial year.
James Mole, a director at Hanover, said: “In times of scarce resources it is mental wellbeing that has too often paid the price for tackling physical disease, and it appears the public wants to avoid that being the case in this round of spending constraints.”
A Department of Health and Social Care official said: “Too many people with mental health issues — especially children — are not getting the care they need when they need it. Long waits have become normalised, and we are tackling these as a priority under our Plan for Change. That is why we are providing access to specialist mental health support in every school, creating a network of community mental health hubs, and recruiting 8,500 more mental health workers across children’s and adult services.”
An NHS official said: “Staff are working hard to care for more children and young people than before, with 60 per cent more … accessing our services compared to pre-pandemic.”
