Saturday 28 May 2016

Too much demand, too little funding – children’s mental health services in England are failing

There’s not much more to say about the excellent report by England’s Children’s Commissioner. She details a sorry tale of the inability of children, young people and their families to get the help they require when they need it. Shockingly she found that 28% of children referred for mental health support in England in 2015 were sent away without help, some after suicide attempts.


As I said in a recent post, none of this is new.


For years and years practitioners and campaigners have been telling governments that child and adolescent mental health services are chronically underfunded. And for years and years governments have chosen not to hear. It’s a disgrace.