By Bill Heaney
Children and young people have been ‘deserted by the SNP’, Scottish Labour has said today, after CAMHS stats show 1 in 4 children and young people still wait too long to begin treatment.
Just 75.6% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral, despite the government’s own target aiming for 90% of patients to be seen within this time frame.
Shockingly, this meant 5,344 children and young people were waiting to start treatment at the quarter ending September 2023.
Scottish Labour has previously set alarm bells ringing re CAMHS services, warning that the SNP’s mental health strategy will not be enough to reverse the crisis without supporting the workers and services that deliver it.
Scottish Labour has also called for a revamp of mental health support, including a referral system to ensure no child or young person who is asking for help is turned away, a mental health worker in every GP and a mental health A&E department in each health board.
Scottish Labour Mental Health spokesperson Paul Sweeney, left, said: “These latest figures are a stark reminder of the true scale of this crisis.
“People have lost faith in mental health support and thousands of children and young people have been forced to wait weeks to receive care.
“Warm words are not enough to tackle the scale of this crisis. We need to take real action beginning by putting a dedicated mental health worker in every GP surgery so that people can access the help they need before it becomes a crisis.
“The SNP must heed Scottish Labour’s warning and take real action now to ensure that our children and young people are no longer deserted by the SNP”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, right, said: “I do not understand how nationalist ministers can respond to these devastatingly long waits for treatment with budget cuts and inaction.
“The SNP have failed by every measure on mental health. Last winter, the government slashed the mental health budget by a staggering £50m, a reckless move that was swiftly followed by Humza Yousaf breaking his personal commitment to clear waiting lists by the spring.
“To bring down waits, we need to ensure that everyone has access to world-class mental health services. That’s why Scottish Liberal Democrats have just set out plans to increase the tax paid by the social media giants- a move that could help fund more mental health support in schools and get more professionals close to where you live.”
75.6% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral, which means that the target was missed for almost a quarter of children and young people.
79.4% of people started their treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which means that the target was missed for a fifth of adults.
516 adults who started to receive psychological therapies between July and September 2023 had waited more than a year. A further 1,347 adults still waiting to start their treatment on 30 September 2023 had waited more than a year. The total who waited, or are still waiting, more than a year is 1,863