Surge in children contacting online mental health community after being told they aren't ill enough to get support from NHS children and adolescent mental health services.
Kooth, a digital mental health provider used by 90 per cent of Clinical Commissioning Groups across the NHS, reported last week that the numbers of children contacting its service with suicidal thoughts had increased by 20 per cent in 2021, compared to 2020 - and by a massive 53 per cent when compared to 2019.
The digital mental health provider told The Independent that it had “massive concern” about the number of children, particularly young children, contacting its service after being told they aren’t ill enough to access NHS children and adolescent mental health services. In the face of soaring demand, the latter have been forced to deal with only the children deemed most at risk.
“Pretty much all services on the ground are seeing this increase in suicidal thoughts in children and young people,” Dr Lynne Green, chief clinical officer at Kooth told The Independent last week. “That’s a massive concern. It was there before the pandemic and it absolutely has been exacerbated as a result of the pandemic... We have people coming to us saying I’m told I’m not ill enough to get into the service, and they find themselves on really long waiting lists. So they come to services like ours, or they use the charity sector, to get some kind of support in the hope that some kind of support is better than none at all.”
Kooth said it had also seen a 74 per cent increase in the number of children seeking its help for eating disorders. This mirrors data reported by NHS eating disorder services which, according to an analysis by the Royal College of Psychiatrists for the BBC, saw a 77 per cent rise in demand in 2021.
Dr Green said NHS eating disorder services have become completely “inundated” with referrals and so have been forced into “dealing with the most risky or the most complex [cases] with the limited resources that they’ve got.”
The latest data on waiting times for children’s community eating disorder services showed 62 per cent of urgent referrals were being seen within the required four weeks, while the NHS standard is to see 95 per cent within this time, said The Independent.
If you are struggling with your mental health, you can find sources of local support on this website.
