Highlights
- 6,269 children aged six to nine attended A&E with mental health problems last year, up 62 per cent since 2019
- 75,491 children under 18 attended A&E with a mental health concern last year, up 36 per cent since 2019
- More than 300 children waited at least three days in A&E
CHILDREN as young as six are going to A&E because their families have "nowhere else to turn" during a mental health crisis, new figures show.
Data from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) found that 6,269 children aged six to nine attended A&E with mental health problems last year, a rise of 62 per cent since 2019.
Last year, 75,491 children under 18 attended emergency departments with a mental health concern, up 36 per cent since 2019, according to the RCPCH analysis, based on Freedom of Information Act figures from NHS England. The rise has been steepest among children of primary school age.
More than 300 children had to wait at least three days in A&E last year, and there has been a threefold rise in the number waiting more than 12 hours.
Nurses said the "noisy, brightly lit" emergency departments are frightening for children in distress and can make their condition worse.
Sam Jones, RCPCH officer for mental health, said: "Behind every one of these figures is a child or young person in distress, and a family who didn't know where else to turn."
"Emergency departments are a vital safety net, but they were never designed to be a place where children in mental health crisis wait for days at a time... This is a national crisis that will only get worse without urgent intervention from government and NHS leaders. No child should be spending 12 hours or more in A&E, let alone days to weeks, while they wait for the right support. The scandal has to end."
"The growing number of children reaching crisis point with their mental health is deeply alarming, particularly among younger children," Ronny Cheung, RCPCH officer for health services, was quoted as saying.
A failing system
According to professor Lynn Woolsey, of the Royal College of Nursing, the rise in children presenting to A&E in mental health crisis is a damning indictment of a failing system.
She added that A&E departments "are wholly unsuitable for children in mental health distress" and that long waits "can often cause those struggling to deteriorate further".
Nicholas, a father-of-two whose 10-year-old son has autism and mental health issues, told BBC Your Voice, "There is no support when in crisis. GP won't prescribe anything. We are stuck on a children's mental health waiting list which is the only service who can provide interventions. The system is broken."
He added: "When at A&E, half the time we don't see a doctor because you have to wait so long."
Gemma Byrne, of the mental health charity Mind, said A&E could be a frightening environment for anyone in a mental health crisis, let alone a child, and that forcing them to spend more than 12 hours there was unacceptable.
The Department of Health and Social Care said no child should have to reach crisis point before getting the support they need.
It said it was making it easier to access mental health support in schools and colleges, and was opening more than 150 new mental health facilities, with a new mental health strategy due to be published later this year.
