Children who need to access child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) face long waiting times and for many, when they are eventually seen, their mental health needs are not dealt with adequately, a new report from the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) has found.

The report, A Piece of My Mind, is based on a survey of 2,166 children aged 12-17 years. Of these, 6% were currently attending CAMHS, however 12% said they had accessed CAMHS at some stage.

The survey found that 62% of children who attended CAMHS in the past year had difficulty accessing the service. Furthermore, among these, 42% said that the service they finally received did not help with their mental health problems.

Of those reporting difficulties with CAMHS, 23% said they did not get to attend the service for long enough to get the help they needed, while 27% felt that CAMHS staff were dismissive.

The survey also found that overall, 78% of children said they had experienced some mental health difficulties. The five main causes given were:

-Pressure in school

-Body image

-Friendships or relationships

-Social media pressure

-Bullying.

Other reasons given included sexual orientation, racism and worries about the future.

More girls than boys reported mental health difficulties – 55% versus 44%. Meanwhile, among the 6% of participants who identified as non-binary or other, 94% reported mental health issues.

When asked what improvements are needed, 45% of respondents said that more self-help skills need to be taught in school and 44% said there needs to be more mental health professionals. Other suggestions included shorter waiting times for services, more services in the local area and asking children what services they need.

“We must remember that for children to have to turn to CAMHS in the first place they have to be really struggling with their mental health. So it simply isn’t good enough that so many of them are having to wait long periods of time to access services, and that when they do, they feel that the standard of those services falls short,” commented the Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon.

He described the findings as “very worrying”.

“With almost 12,000 children on waiting lists for primary care psychology services and 4,270 of those waiting for more than a year, it is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently,” Dr Muldoon added.

The survey was carried out in November and December 2022 by Red C Research and Marketing.

A Piece of My Mind can be viewed here.