Almost a quarter of a million children and young people are
receiving help from NHS mental health services for problems such as anxiety,
depression and eating disorders, figures show. Children’s services are
struggling to cope with demand. Research shows 28% of children referred for
support in England – including some who had attempted suicide – received no
help in 2015.
11,849 boys and girls aged five and under, and 53,659 aged
between six and 10. Just over 100,000 patients were 11 to 15, and 69,505 were
16 to 18.
Experts blame growing pressures on the young, including the
need to excel academically, look good and be popular, as well as poverty and
family breakdown for the growing burden of mental illness in school-age
children and young adults. An NHS inquiry found last week that self-harm and
post-traumatic stress disorder had risen sharply in young women aged 16 to 24 in
recent years.
The Children's Society suggests that an estimated 2.4
million children in England and Wales live in households with problem debt. They
were at greater risk of having poor mental health than those in debt-free
homes, the charity said.
Children's mental health has hit crisis point.
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