Figures for England show that nearly one in four women have a mental illness with emotional problems such as depression and anxiety being the most common.
The official NHS report found that young women aged between 17 to 19 were two times more likely to suffer with mental illness; 23.9% reported a disorder. In children aged 5 to 15, one in nine had a disorder which has gone up form, one in ten in a review done 13 years ago. These finding are done from a survey of more than 9,000 young people.
The results are gathered by statistics body NHS Digital and have been assessed by experts only.
The children’s commissioner for England warned that there was a vast gap in the NHS mental health support. The NHS Digital review found children aged 11 to 19 with a mental health problem were more likely to use social media. Nearly a third spent over four hours a day on social media. Those who did not have a mental health problem were two to three less likely to spend that amount of time on social media. It can be linked to cyber-bulling on social media and the number of ‘likes’ that lead to emotional disorders.
Around £700 million is spend on CAHMS and eating disorder support. The commissioner said an extra £1.7 billion would be need to be invested to bring children’s services in line as services of adults receive 15 times more funding despite children representing 20% of the population. This extra funding could help pay for more early help by funding NHS counsellors in schools.
Both NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have made improving children’s mental health care a priority. The commissioner’s report noted that an investment was increasing and there has been good progress in terms of tackling eating disorders with new services and strict targets for access. A new four-week target for access to CAHMS is also going to be run soon. An NHS England spokesman said services were improving and in the coming years another 70,000 children will be able to access support. Ministers have also been putting pressure on social media firms to do more about cyber bulling and aggressive behaviour online.
