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Most GPs believe mental health services for young people are inadequate, with almost 9/10 fearing that children or teenagers may come to harm while waiting for specialist treatment, new research shows today.
A survey for stem4, the charity which works to prevent mental ill health in teenagers, found that almost 4/5 (78%) GPs are seeing more young patients with mental health problems than five years ago. Most (87%) expect pressure on services to increase.
Nearly all (97%) the doctors surveyed had seen a patient aged 11-18 suffering from depression over the past five years. The same number (97%) said they had seen a patient experiencing self-harm, and 6/10 (61%) were seeing more young patients self-harming than five years ago. However, half (50%) said they had received no specialist training on self-harm and over a third (36%) said they had received training but it was not adequate for them to feel confident supporting young patients.
The survey forms the basis of stem4’s new report ‘A Time Bomb Waiting to Explode’. 302 GPs in England were asked about their patients aged 11-18:
- Almost 8/10 (78%) said the number of patients experiencing mental health problems had increased, either somewhat (61%) or greatly (17%), over the past five years
- 63% had seen a young patient with an addiction problem
- 89% had seen patients with eating disorders
- 85% say health and social care services for children are either inadequate (59%) or extremely inadequate (26% )
- 83% say services for young people who self-harm are either inadequate or extremely inadequate
- Almost 9/10 (86%) had concerns about patients coming to harm while waiting for treatment
- Most (76%) want to see increased funding for mental health, and over half (54%) want more specialist training for GPs on young people’s mental health problems
‘Young people’s mental health services are at crisis point. GPs are having to cope with the consequences of our failure to focus on prevention, and a lack of access to specialist services. We may not be able to change the world we have created for our young people, but we need to take action to ensure that help is available when they need it. GPs are at the forefront of addressing this crisis and they need far more support….The increase in mental ill health among our young people is exacerbated by our trophy culture. They are under enormous pressure to succeed in every way, not only at school where they are constantly tested and graded, but also by endeavouring to gain social cachet by competing to be ‘followed’ and ‘liked’ on social media,’ said Dr Nihara Krause, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Founder of stem 4.
Comments from the doctors surveyed included:
- ‘Recently several parents have had to pay for private appointments so that their youngsters could receive the care they needed. These were not affluent parents, just desperate and caring.’
- ‘Referrals are increasingly bounced back from secondary care with instructions to simply seek counselling.’
- ‘I feel mental health services for patients this age are woefully inadequate. The few patients that we actually manage to get seen still have to wait for often over a year in order to be seen.’
- ‘I feel it is appalling that someone who has asked for help needs to wait up to 6 months for any intervention I can provide in a secondary setting. Only the most severe get any help at all.’
- ‘Young mental health problems are a time bomb waiting to explode!’
The report calls for a greater emphasis on the identification and prevention of young people’s mental health problems at primary care level, and for more specialist training for GPs.
When considering LGBT youth, there are even more stark statistics.
- 4% of young (16-24 year old) LGBT people have considered suicide[ii]
- 55% of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils have experienced direct bullying. Those who are bullied are at a higher risk of suicide, self-harm and depression.
- 41% have attempted or considered taking their own life because of bullying and the same number say that they deliberately self-harm because of bullying.[iii]
On 22 June, stem4 is holding a conference to provide with GPs with the latest information on dealing with mental health problems affecting children and young people. Calm Harm, the charity’s smartphone app to help people manage the urge to self-harm, is available for free, and has been downloaded more than 14,700 times.
