Nov 24, 2022, Yahoo News: Rise in children as young as 11 needing NHS mental health help https://uk.news.yahoo.com/rise-children-young-11-needing-134924022.html
There has been a dramatic rise in the number of children as young as 11 needing help from NHS mental health services, new figures show.
Data from NHS Digital for England shows a rise in the number of youngsters needing support and accessing treatment, with almost one in four 16-year-old girls requiring help.
Across all age groups, there has been a rise in the numbers of people in contact with NHS mental health services, with almost a fifth more people needing support compared with three years ago.
A breakdown of the data shows a 29% rise in 2021/22 in number of under-18s in contact with
when compared with 2020/21, the first year of the Covid pandemic, and the previous (non-pandemic) year.
Some 992,647 needed support in 2021/22 – up from 768,083 in 2020/21 and 763,888 in 2019/20.
Overall, 18% of the country’s 16-year-olds (114,203) and 17% of 17-year-olds (101,694) were in contact with these NHS services in 2021/22.
Of these, 16-year-old girls were most likely to be in contact with NHS mental health, autism and disability services – with 23% (69,580) needing support during 2021/22.
The number of 11 to 15-year-olds in contact with services has also increased, from 359,681 in 2020/21 to 498,558 to 2021/22 – a 39% rise….
“The Government must deliver on its promise of a 10-year mental health plan. It should include the changes that tens of thousands of young people have already called for – an early support hub in every community, better support in schools, NHS services that meet demand.”
The NHS Digital data shows that 3,256,695 people of all ages were in contact with mental health, learning disabilities and autism services at some point in the year – 992,647 of these were under 18….
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