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Podcast Transcript – Children and Young People’s Mental Health

I’m joined today by Dharshi Santhakumaran, who led our report that looked at the mental health system serving Scotland’s young people.
Dharshi, thanks very much for joining me. There’s been a lot said about the strain mental health services for young people are under. Your report has backed a lot of that up, hasn’t it?
We found clear signs that the system is under significant pressure. In the last five years, there’s been a 22% increase in the number of referrals to specialist mental health services. And the number of young people having their referral rejected has risen over that time as well. On top of that, children and young people are also waiting longer for treatment, with over a quarter of youngsters who started treatment in the last year waiting over 18 weeks.
Is the system in crisis?
What’s clear is that the current system is geared towards specialist care and responding to crisis, rather than being focused on identifying and helping young people earlier to prevent more serious episodes of mental ill-health. Early intervention is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s mental health strategy but that’s not what the current picture is showing us. 
And are there some parts of the country that are struggling more than others?
At the moment it’s really difficult for children, young people and their families to get the support they need, at the right time, and a lot of that is to do with how complex and fragmented the system is. For example, access to early intervention services like school counselling and primary mental health workers are patchy depending on where you live. And access to specialist support also varies a lot across the country.
There also appears to be a significant issue around the data we have on mental health services.
Yes, it is very difficult to identify how much is being spent on services for young people or what kind of difference these services are making to their lives. And that’s principally because of the national financial and performance data is so limited. 
This matters because without a much clearer understanding of how our young people are accessing existing services it will be challenging to begin addressing the issues we raise in our report.
What, then, do you want to see happen?
We’re calling for a step change in how the public sector responds to the mental health needs of children and young people. Because it’s such a complex area, no one organization can address all the issues raised in our report. And we now need to see government, integration authorities, councils, NHS boards and others work together with young people to start bringing about change. 
Dharshi, thank you very much indeed. 
And if you want to read our report on Children and Young People’s Mental Health you can download it from our website - audit-scotland.gov.uk. 
ENDS