(UK) Mental health help need for children "has skyrocketed in recent years"; 18 mo waiting list

Nov 23, 2017, (UK) Guardian: Children with mental health problems 'guaranteed' treatment in four weeks https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/23/children-with-mental-health-problems-guaranteed-treatment-in-four-weeks Children with anxiety and depression will be guaranteed treatment within four weeks in a new effort to improve mental health care, but lack of NHS staff and funding means the plan cannot be fully introduced until 2021. … Maximum waiting times to access child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) is one of the key proposals in the government’s paper on children’s mental health, details of which have been obtained by the Guardian. The departments of health and education are currently finalising the document. The paper is also expected to propose that pupils should be seen by therapists and counsellors at their school rather than going to a clinic off-site, to encourage uptake of treatment by using a setting with which they are familiar. … Many children’s mental health teams say that they are struggling to cope with demand, which has rocketed in recent years as growing numbers of young people have begun suffering with anxiety, depression and other disorders. Rates of self-harm, especially among teenage girls, have soared over the last decade. Social media, pressures at school, poverty and difficult backgrounds have been identified as factors underpinning the rise. … Readers respond to a report that children in the UK with mental health problems are waiting up to 18 months to be treated. … Sarah Brennan, the chief executive of the charity Young Minds, said: “The green paper is a huge opportunity to tackle the mental health crisis we are seeing among children and young people in England. …