Picture posed by a model of a teenage girl showing signs of mental-health issues
(Picture: Gareth Fuller / PA)Young people experiencing mental health crises need to have attempted suicide multiple times before they get a bed in an inpatient unit in England, a report has revealed.
The threshold for obtaining a bed in child and adolescent mental health units is now so high that even very vulnerable under-18s who pose a clear risk to themselves cannot get one.
The problem – a result of the NHS’s lack of beds reserved for mental health patients – leaves young people at risk of further harm, their parents exhausted, worried and angry, and increasingly having to rely on police and ambulance services.
The report said A&E departments have become an “accidental hub” for children and young people experiencing crises but are ill-equipped to offer the treatment required.
The report says a young person has to “have attempted suicide multiple times to be offered inpatient support”.
It was commissioned by Look Ahead Care, a charity that provides mental health services in 40 areas of England, and is being launched on Wednesday in the House of Lords.
The report also revealed that the number of children and young people contacting mental health services rose by nearly a third from 2020 to 2021. Data also shows families are increasingly relying on ambulance and police services to deliver mental health support.
One parent quoted in the report said of her son: “It was very clear from what the doctor had written that he has suicidal intentions and was planning for it. It kind of felt that at that time CAMHS were only interested if he attempted it, which obviously we didn’t want him to do.”
The private sector now provides most of the mental health inpatient care for children and young people who are deemed unwell enough to need a bed, but this comes at an “exceptionally high cost” – up to £4,200 a week.
What are the early signs of depression in children?
The number of children and young people contacting mental health services rose by nearly a thrid from 2020 to 2021.
According to NHS England, the following could be signs of depression in young people:
- Sadness or a low mood that does not go away
- Being irritable or grumpy all the time
- Not being interested in things they used to enjoy
- Feeling tired and exhausted a lot of the time
- Having trouble sleeping more than usual
- Not being able to concentrate
- Interacting less with friends and family
- Being indecisive
- Not having much confidence
- Eating less than usual or overeating
- Having big changes in weight
- Seeming unable to relax or being more lethargic than usual
- Talking about feeling guilty or worthless
- Feeling unable to feel emotions (numb)
