Exclusive: New figures show children waiting up to nine months for mental health treatment
An ITV Granada Reports investigation into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the North West has found that children are waiting as long as nine months for treatment for mental health problems.
Our research, which we are publishing today to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, highlights a service which, according to some health professionals, is 'stretched to breaking point'.
Speaking exclusively to ITV News, one former child psychiatrist told us that 'young lives are being lost' because of problems with CAMHS.
Adrian Derbyshire lost his daughter Julia in December 2015. She took her own life after being bullied online.
Adrian says children should be getting treated much sooner for mental health problems:
Adrian also told us that when his daughter sought help, her case manager had fifty other case loads.
In 2015, the government pledged an extra £1.4 billion over five years to “transform” Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
However, Young Minds, the children's mental health charity, say that if CAMHS services are to improve, there needs to be far greater accountability about where that money is being spent.
The charity recently carried out research that found in 2015-16 nearly two-thirds (64%) of CCGs used some or all of the extra money to backfill cuts or to spend on other priorities.
In the second year of extra funding (2016-17), only half of CCGs who responded increased their CAMHS spend by as much as their additional government funds. Young Minds say the other half spent some or all of the extra money on 'other priorities.'
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