THE CAMPAIGNER

We have been campaigning for better mental health support for young people for a number of years and over that time we’ve seen countless promises from Scottish Government which fail to materialise.

There is no denying the scale and urgency of the problem. Many children and young people wait more than four months for their first appointment with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and the average waiting time is consistently over two months. After the initial wait, one in five are rejected from the service altogether.

We know from speaking to young people and their families that many feel they have to be in crisis, self-harming or feeling suicidal, before they get help.

This is a persistent problem, yet there is little evidence to indicate that access to support has improved. The Scottish Government recently dropped the term “rejected referrals” from official statistics and, while we would love this term to be obsolete, simply changing the language doesn’t help the thousands of young people who are still being turned away.

Our ask to the Scottish Government is clear. We want to see a fully resourced commitment that every child or young person who needs mental health support will get it at the first time of asking, without the threat of rejection.