Mental health referrals for teenagers in London have more than doubled in four years, according to new figures that lay bare the impact of lockdown and the cost of living crisis on young people.
Cygnet Healthcare, a private provider, said that individual referrals to its Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the capital had jumped by 113 per cent from 2018 to 2022.
In 2018, 4.4 per cent of the total referrals into the provider’s CAMHS service were from the London region. By 2021, this had increased to 15.3 per cent.
Referrals to Cygnet’s psychiatric intensive care unit more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, while admissions jumped by 41 per cent during the same time period.
Cygnet’s CAMHS services focus on supporting children aged between 12 and 18.
The provider said it had seen an increase in the number of young people presenting with a “low mood, insomnia, stress and anxiety” as well as “depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms” following the lockdown. One of the “biggest increases in presentation was seen in disordered eating,” they said.
There were three national lockdowns between March 2020 and July 2021, when the majority of Covid restrictions were lifted. During the first and third lockdown, schools were shut to all pupils except the children of key workers.
Dr Triveni Joshi, a consultant psychiatrist who specialises in child and adolescent psychiatry, said: “We won’t know for many years whether the virus itself disturbed young people’s neurological development but we have emerging evidence which tells us about the detrimental impact of lockdown.
“It impacted young people’s mental health and wellbeing severely, particularly those who had pre-existing mental health conditions.”
Dr Joshi said that the “biggest concern” for children during lockdown was “isolation” and that a “lack of socialisation is a key factor in depression”.
“They were missing social contact and had no way of engaging in activities which would have previously boosted their mental health such as sports clubs and activities with their friends.
“Not having that outlet, as well as the huge sense of anxiety about what was happening to the world around them, would have been overwhelming and little wonder they struggled.”
Meg, 15, is a patient at Cygnet Hospital Sheffield, which provides support for young people who have complex needs and require high intensity nursing care.
She was admitted after attempting to take her own life last year.
“I struggle to socialise with people and I got used to not being around anyone during lockdown,” she explained. “When restrictions lifted and I returned to school and needed to interact, my problems got a lot worse.
“Even during lockdown, I didn’t have anyone to talk to. You had to be severely unwell to get the right support. That’s the situation I ended up in.
“Without Covid, I might have had the same struggles but I would have had access to the coping strategies I needed a lot earlier.”
