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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Shanti Das

‘This cannot go on’: rise in under-18s on adult psychiatric wards in UK

Mental Health Elaine Lockhart CQC NHS Royal College of Psychiatrists
Teenage boy looking out of bedroom window, hand on window
Mental health services are struggling with the amount of young people who are ‘more unwell’, says Dr Elaine Lockhart of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Photograph: Richard Bailey/Getty

A growing number of children with mental health problems are being treated on adult psychiatric wards as services struggle to cope with a surge in demand following the pandemic, the NHS watchdog has warned.

There were 249 admissions of under-18s to adult psychiatric wards in England in 2021-22, according to data provided by NHS trusts to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), up 30% on the year before.

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