Shock toll on youngsters’ mental health

DOCTORS are treating children for mental health conditions “on a scale not seen before” as the pandemic and lockdown takes its toll.

As a rising number of youngsters suffer problems severe enough to require them being sectioned, experts warned children were being forgotten in the crisis.

NHS figures last week showed the number of children referred to child and adolescent mental health services was 4,615 per 100,000, the highest on record and up nearly 20 per cent on last year.

Dr Bernadka Dubicka, chairwoman of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ child and adolescent faculty, said: “We are now seeing increasing numbers of young people with advanced and severe mental health problems who need detaining under the Mental Health Act.

“This is on a scale many of us have not seen before.

Many children have been sitting at home – isolated, without access to education or social care – and problems are missed. We urgently need

‘On a scale not

seen before’

an impact assessment of these policies.”

She warned of increased suicide rates and self-harming, adding: “Vulnerable children are more likely to be affected – it’s like a perfect storm.”

Shutting schools to almost all pupils was seen as a nuclear option in the latest effort to combat Covid-19.

However, new studies suggest there is little evidence that it halts transmission.

In a paper that has yet to be peer-reviewed, experts including Professor Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics, assessed 10 studies across 146 countries. They found no clear evidence on transmission either way and called for a “robust” evaluation of the risks and benefits of closures “before implementation”.

Professor Robert Dingwall, of Nottingham Trent University, said: “Evidence that school closures reduce transmission is in a mess. Children deserve better.”

Speaking personally, Government adviser

Professor Mark Woolhouse said: “Lockdown is a failure of health policy. We should have had other ways of responding which doesn’t involve lockdown, and especially closing schools.”