Mental health treatment targets missed as 2,163 people wait more than a year

By Bill Heaney

Scottish Liberal Democrat Alex Cole-Hamilton today said Scotland needs world class mental health services after new figures showed the mental health waiting times targets being missed yet again for children and adults.

The Public Health Scotland data shows:

• Only 84.1% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS.

• Just 80.2% of adults were seen within 18 weeks of referral to psychological therapies.

• 4,942 children and young people and 23,669 adults were waiting for treatment at the quarter ending June 2024.

• 181 children and young people and 1,982 adults waiting more than a year to start treatment.

Mental health funding was frozen for the third year in a row in the Scottish budget last December. When combined with in-year funding cuts and inflation, this adds up to more than £80 million of real-term cuts to the mental health budget.

Mr Cole-Hamilton, pictured above right, said: “The SNP’s failed NHS Recovery Plan promised to clear mental health waiting lists by March 2023. Eighteen months on and these statistics still show more than 2,000 children and adults waiting over a year for the help they need. Nobody should ever have to endure that.

“The SNP have repeatedly raided tens of millions from the mental health budget, adding to the agony of everyone waiting an age to be seen.

“Scotland needs world-class mental health services. Liberal Democrats would increase the tax the social media giants who cause so much of the problem – a move that could help fund more mental health support in schools, get more professionals close to where you live, and ramp up the training of new staff and mental health first aiders.”

These are the Public Health Scotland figures for the quarter ending June 2024. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times can be found here.

Psychological Therapies waiting times can be foundhere.

The Scottish Government standard states that 90 per cent of children, young people and adults should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS or psychological therapies.

Seventy children and young people who started their treatment between April and June 2024 had waited more than a year.

A further 111 children and young people still waiting to start their treatment on 30 June 2024 had already waited more than a year. The total who waited, or are still waiting, more than a year is 181.

Five hundred and five adults who started to receive psychological therapies between April and June 2024 had waited more than a year.

A further 1,477 adults still waiting to start their treatment on 30 June 2024 had already waited more than a year. The total who waited, or are still waiting, more than a year is 1,982.

Labour too are furious about this. They maintain that the SNP is “betraying a generation”after waiting times for children and young people’s mental health treatment soared.

The proportion of children and adolescents waiting more than 18 weeks for a referral rose from 14 percent to 15.9 percent in the quarter ending June 2024 – meaning nearly one in six children and young people identified as in need of treatment waited more than four months to get help.

This SNP Government has never met its own target of 90 percent of CAMHS patients being seen within 18 weeks.

In the last 12 months, over a quarter of CAMHS referrals have been rejected meaning one in four of those who ask for help are being turned away.

Overall, more than 28,000 Scots are waiting on mental health support – with over 1,500 waiting for more than a year for treatment.

Paul Sweeney, left, Labour’s spokesperson for Mental Health, said: “Behind these numbers are families who are desperately trying to help their children but have ended up in limbo instead. Four months is a long time for any young person – and for some, it may be the most critical time in their life.

“The SNP must wake up to the mental health crisis on its doorstep and act now before a whole generation are betrayed.

“Scottish Labour will invest in our NHS and bring waiting times down so that every child or young person who asks for help can get it.”

Specialist mental health waiting lists, qtr. ending 30 June 2024

	Total waiting list	Waits over 52 weeks
CAMHS	4942	111
Adult Psychological therapies	23668	1477
TOTAL	28610	1588

For the quarter ending June 2024:

84.1% of children and young people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is a decrease from 86.0% for the previous quarter. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

CAMHS rejected referrals, last four quarters: