If you’re a young person suffering a serious mental health issue then waiting months for help is a living hell

in eight months.

“That would be completely unacceptable. We need to start comparing physical and mental health more.

“Why is that any different? It is unacceptable to send a child away indefinitely. A wait of 10, 12, 16 weeks is too long for a young person.

“A child’s cognitive process does not allow for that. “I have seen it and it is horrible.” Dr Alastair Cook, medical director of health and social care for NHS Lanarkshire, explained that a protocol is in place to ensure that the most urgent cases are seen very quickly, which does result in longer waits for less urgent cases.

He said: “The number of referrals continues to increase. It is positive that children requiring a specialist service are more likely to be identified and referred to the service.

“However, this has had an impact on waiting times.

“We apologise to children, young people and their families who are having to wait longer.

“NHS Lanarkshire has taken a number of actions to improve waiting times including successfully recruiting new clinical associates in applied psychology, waiting- list initiative clinics and making a number of fixedterm posts permanent.”

In North Lanarkshire, there are three specialist locality CAMHS teams which provide more complex and intensive assessment and intervention to those children with more severe mental health and neuro- developmental disorders.

These teams are staffed by a combination of consultant psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, specialist nurses and social workers – all of whom have advancedlevel training and skills in a variety of specialist evidence- based psychological interventions.

The award- winning CAMHS Intensive Treatment Team is a nurseled service which delivers intensive support and treatment in the family home.

Working together to support young people living in the community who have an increased risk of suicide or self-harm, the team uses a range of different approaches to build engaging relationships.

The most recent report shows waiting times for young people who started their treatment from October to December 2017.

These figures are only for specialist services which see and treat patients with more severe mental health issues.

In Lanarkshire, 66.7 per cent of people were seen within the national target of 18 weeks compared to the Scotland average of 71.1 per cent.

The average wait in Lanarkshire was 11 weeks compared to 10 weeks across Scotland.