More than 7,000 children denied mental health help in first nine months of 2023

Scottish Labour has warned that mental health services in Scotland are at “breaking point” after 7,059 children and young people had their referrals rejected in the first nine months of 2023.

The figure is the equivalent of 26 children being turned away from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) on average each day.

There were 28,285 referrals in the year to the end of September, Public Health Scotland said, with a quarter of those rejected.

A least 500 children were denied help from the specialist mental health service in every month of 2023, with the 992 turned away in July the highest of the year so far.

In September, the most recent month included in the figures, 792 children referred to the service failed to gain support, bringing the official figure for rejections in the three months ending September 2023 to 27%.

Scottish Labour’s mental health spokesman Paul Sweeney said: “Scotland is in the grip of a mental health crisis but hundreds of children and young people are being turned away from services every month.

“NHS staff are working tirelessly to deliver the care children and young people need, but services are at breaking point because of the SNP’s mismanagement.

“We cannot allow struggling young people to fall through the cracks – the SNP must ensure that Camhs services can cope and children can get the support they need.

“Scottish Labour will continue to call for better mental health services across the board, including a dedicated mental health worker in every GP surgery and an increase in the proportion of the health budget spent on mental health.”

Mental wellbeing minister Maree Todd said: “Long waits for treatment are not acceptable and we remain committed to meet the standard that 90% of patients begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral.

“The latest figures show that we continue to see significant and sustained progress on Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times but we know there is a lot of work to do.”

“Record high investments in CAMHS, including £48.6 million of supplementary funding to Health Boards this year, are helping to improve the quality and delivery of mental health services.

“We know that CAMHS is not suitable for everyone. To ensure all children and young people receive the right support, at the right time, the Scottish Government has invested £45 million over the last three years in community-based mental health support for children, young people and their families.

“These services are focussed on early intervention and prevention and offer an alternative to CAMHS where appropriate by providing support for emotional distress delivered in a community setting.

“Local authorities report that 45,000 children, young people and families accessed these in the final six months of 2022 alone. Counselling can also be accessed through every secondary school in Scotland.

“Between the Scottish Government and NHS boards, we expect spending on mental health to be well in excess of £1.3 billion this year.”