Minister admits mental health waiting times ‘not acceptable’
The country’s health minister has admitted the need for action on the region’s poor waiting times for child mental health services.
Recent figures reported by Public Health Scotland revealed that close to 700 young people across Forth Valley were still waiting for the vital support from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) at the end of June this year.
The data also revealed that only 39 per cent of those still on hold for CAMHS help had been waiting for 18 weeks or fewer - which represents the Scottish Government’s target time for treatment.
With the issue still in the national spotlight, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf branded the state of waiting times both in Stirling and across Scotland as “unacceptable”.
Mr Yousaf was asked about the waiting times issue at a recent meeting of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee at the Scottish Parliament by Stirling MSP Evelyn Tweed, who said she had been contacted by “anxious” constituents looking for a plan to improve the current situation.
Mr Yousaf said: “I note that we are investing in services that I would say are pre-CAMHS, in that they are designed to be accessed at a much earlier stage, before people get to the point at which CAMHS crisis intervention is needed.
“That programme of local interventions is, again, designed to be suitable for whatever the local need is; for example, it might be different in Stirling compared with Selkirk or other parts of the country.
“We set up a CAMHS task force that gave us an evaluation of the service and made recommendations, and we are investing quite significantly in CAMHS - some details of that are included in the NHS recovery plan.
“Some of that investment will address staff recruitment. We intend to provide funding to increase recruitment to CAMHS by 320 additional mental health workers.
“That increase in the staff cohort will undoubtedly work.
“I will be honest here: the wait for CAMHS treatment is unacceptable.
“We are not meeting the 90 per cent standard at the moment and I am afraid that we were not meeting it before the pandemic, either.
“We have therefore invested additional funding of £29.2 million to NHS boards specifically to target CAMHS, with £4.25 million of that being focused directly on those who are currently on the CAMHS waiting list.”
Following the meeting, Ms Tweed said: “From constituent contacts to expert input, it’s clear that CAMHS will be needed more than ever as Scotland emerges from the pandemic.
“The impact on the mental health of our young people from almost 2 years of disruption will be unprecedented.
“Both leadership at NHS Forth Valley, and the Cabinet Secretary, have offered assurances to me that extra resources are being deployed to tackle the backlog and boost capacity to respond to need.
“Investment in early interventions too can help ease pressure on CAMHS down the line, and I was pleased to hear the Cabinet Secretary describe action on this point too.
“Refused referrals can cause significant distress to individuals and families, and I was keen to raise this with the Cabinet Secretary. £15 million in funding to boost locally based mental health interventions will help ensure those who are refused a referral to CAMHS, can access other forms of support.”
However, Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Dean Lockhart branded the waiting times faced by young people requiring mental health help in Forth Valley as a “scandal”.
He said: “There is a growing mental health crisis among our young people across Stirling with so many not being seen for months.
“The SNP Government have repeatedly pledged action, but it is clear they are still nowhere near to getting on top of this challenge.
“It is a scandal that so many of our vulnerable young people are waiting so long to begin vital mental health treatment. This is a problem that pre-dates the pandemic but has been made worse by the Covid crisis.
“I will be continuing to push for some action to support NHS staff and charities to increase capacity and ensure our young people get the early treatment desperately needed.”