The Independent learned that weak children In some parts of the UK, they have to wait up to 3 years for mental health care, while others get it in less than a week. Psychiatrists have described this disparity in treatment as akin to the “zip code lottery scandal.” [يانصيب زائف بعث رسائل إلى آلاف الأشخاص في اسكتلندا يعلمهم بفوزهم بجائزته، ويطلب مالاً لتوصيله لهم، ثم تبين أنها رسائل زائفة], warning of the additional effects on the mental health of adolescents as a result of the Corona epidemic.
One child care expert noted that the harmful impact of the epidemic on mental health services, which are already experiencing long delays in providing them with necessary care, is like “throwing a bomb on the whole issue”.
It is worth noting that with the multiple lockdowns in the country over the last two years, which have kept Children about their schools, friends, and hobbiesIn 2020 and 2021, one in six children reported a mental health disorder, compared to the same rate in 2017, one in nine children.
The Independent requested information from about 48 NHS mental health institutions about how long children wait for their first appointment with Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Health Services (CAMHS) after their referral, and about the availability of beds for those most in need of such special care.
It turned out that in one of the worst cases of waiting, it took 1,019 days for a psychiatric evaluation of a young patient in South Yorkshire.
In Staffordshire in the West Midlands, children waited an average of seven days, and in Bromley, south-east London, other children faced an average of 112 days before an assessment of their mental health.
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Going forward, Jo Hutchinson, director of the Education Policy Institute, described the unequal service as deeply troubling. She told The Independent: “The persistence of these disparities in mental health services for children is of great concern, especially as we know what they are. Effects of the epidemic on youth.
Dr. Eileen Lockhart, chair of the College of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, likened the situation of mental health services for children and young adults to a “zip code lottery”, describing it as “egregious, with long waiting times for treatment.” From my specialist, children and young people’s mental health deteriorates, and they end up in a real crisis.”
The disclosure of this information comes at a time when Robert Halfon, a senior member of Parliament from the Conservative Party, warned that putting students in protective masks in schools may harm the mental health of children, after the government announced that this measure would be re-applied in classrooms during the next semester.
Halfon, who chairs the Commons Education Committee, feared that the risks posed by the new rules would outweigh the Protect children’s safetyThe extent of the damage caused by the “Covid” disease itself.
He added, “The puzzling question with regard to the preventive methods that we adopt, we find that we call on people to wear protective masks in the shops, while it is not required to wear them inside offices. There is no rule for adults to wear masks in offices. So why are children asked? Putting it in schools, in the classroom, at a time when these people are at the lowest risk of contracting coronavirus? I don’t understand the rationale behind that.”
And by extension, Halfon believed that the British Ministry of Education should work to assess the negative impact of putting protective masks in schools. On the other hand, the government stresses that the masks “contribute to maintaining children’s attendance at school” in light of the widespread spread of the rapidly transmitting “Omicron” mutant, while indicating that the measures taken in that framework are temporary.
According to data collected by “The Independent”, six institutions recorded the longest waiting periods, lasting more than a year, before being able to provide “mental care services for children and adolescents” and subject them to a psychological evaluation, including 476 days at “Norfolk and Suffolk NHS”. Foundation Trust, 405 days at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
In some of the worst examples of these lengths, a young man had to wait 807 days to be made an appointment from the Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust in order to access Child and Young Mental Health Services, while one patient waited 642 A day to get a first appointment from the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.
Last year, average waiting times of more than 70 days were recorded by a team in southern Gloucestershire working in collaboration with the Yvonne and Wiltshire Hospital, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and North Hospital. Hamptonshire Health Care.
Most . have been recorded mental health institutions In the north of England average waiting times are less than a month, which is in line with the NHS’s goal of getting a first appointment with CAMHS, which is usually a pre-treatment assessment session. This included 15 days at Bradford County Health Care Hospital and 25 days at the Cambria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear hospitals.
To complement, the shortest average waiting time, just under 7 days, was recorded at the North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust.
Corinne Bateman, 19, from Surrey, explained how she was placed on a waiting list for mental health support by the NHS for four years, and how during this time she turned 18. , transferred to adult services. And last year, she finally got 6 sessions of CBT for her anxiety.
In that context, Pittman recalled, “While I was waiting for an appointment to start the treatment sessions, I was living through severe suffering on my own, which led to an increase in my anxiety during that period.”
And the “Covid” epidemic came to further deteriorate her condition, as she spent many periods of isolation while she was living alone, especially after her mother moved abroad to work, and she had to face the pressures of her homework and obtain an “A Level” certificate by studying from a distance. . Describing what she went through, she “felt very lonely and isolated.”
Dr Karen Street of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health considered that the effects of the epidemic have been catastrophic for the concerted efforts being made to improve child care services. In her words, “We all know that mental health services in Britain are under-resourced and overstretched. We also know that children we see in hospital services are either on waiting lists for mental health care, or their needs are not being met.” launch”.
And she added, “Moreover, I think that Corona came as the bomb that blew up the whole thing,” and pointed out that the “chronic shortage of staff” must be addressed to reduce waiting times.
“It is very sad to see so many children and young people unable to control their lives, as well as many more children who are kept in home conditions that have posed challenges for them, and thus end up having huge repercussions for them,” said Dr. Street.
In this context, figures issued by the Royal College of for psychiatristsThe Royal College of Psychiatrists reported that more than 190,200 children under the age of 18 were referred to mental health services between April and June 2021, nearly twice as many as pre-pandemic levels in the same months.
Dr. Eileen Lockhart also explained that there are “much more” referrals than institutions can handle, and there has been a “real increase” in the number of children and young people with eating disorders during the Corona epidemic.
Data from the “National Health Service” shows that more than two thousand children and young people were waiting for treatment from Eating disorders During the period between July and September of last year, a clear increase from the number recorded in the same period in 2019, when the same number reached about 481.
Board documents also show that children spend time in acute or adult wards while waiting for beds in inpatient Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
In this regard, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust announced that it was having difficulty absorbing “high levels” of referrals to Level 4 beds (acute departments), which resulted in about 90 patients being turned away each month at the end of the day. last year. This number has increased since the epidemic began, and has reached less than 20 per month in 2019.
Sheffield Children’s Hospital explained that there were “significant waiting times” for CAMHS beds in late 2021, with patients still stuck in acute wards in the meantime. The East London NHS Foundation Trust said family pressures from CAMHS had led to “more children and young adults” being admitted to adult wards, which should be avoided “whenever possible”.
A spokesperson for the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said he could not comment on individual cases. “As a[health services]organisation, we have used additional funding in our[CAMHS]to increase the number of assessments on the one hand and reduce waiting times on the other,” he added.
In a related context, a spokesman for “Bradford County Hospital for Health Care” indicated that the longer wait at his institution, which amounted to 807 days, was an “exceptional case”, explaining that it “returns to a period before changing our operational paths, which is now keen that all referrals we have On a routine contact with the Department of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Care, within an average waiting period of 15.9 days.
A Northamptonshire Hospital Health Care spokesperson also explained that there had been an increase in referrals to core CAMHS. This rise appears when comparing the May figures for the years 2020 and 2021. He stressed that the institution is working to meet the increase in demand while ensuring the provision of high-quality and safe service.
In connection with this, the spokesperson for the “National Health Services” commented on the delays, noting that “while these data are just a small overview of the level of some services, they do not show the full picture in all its details, and mayThe pandemic has an inevitable impact on the safety of young people. As a result, the agency’s mental health services are caring for more children and young adults than ever before. More than 420,000 people were treated in 2020 and 2021, including the phenomenon of record demand for eating disorder services.”
He added that in the past year, the National Health Service invested about 120 million pounds (162 million dollars) through additional funding, in “children and adolescent mental health services”, in addition to establishing contact lines for mental health crises, and providing more Support for schools.
Last year, the NHS England proposed new standards that lead to children and young people with mental health problems receiving appropriate care within 28 days of their referral.
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