Study raises prospect of youth mental health service

The Closing the Gap mental health action plan, published by the government earlier this week, outlines plans for “a high-level scoping study to examine evidence for both physical and mental health services focused on the 15 to 24 age group” to be undertaken.

The study will look at international models of youth health services, as well as local examples from England, to assess the implications this might have for care pathways, social workers and health professionals if widely introduced in the UK.

The research has been prompted by concern among ministers and the mental health sector that neither child nor adult services are adequately meeting the needs of adolescents, and that this can only be done through the creation of a specific service to cover the transition from childhood to adulthood.

Barbara Rayment, chair of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, said the scoping study was the government’s first move towards considering a youth health service.

She said: “They are treading cautiously, but it’s great the government want to look at it and I hope they pay attention to what good practice is around in the UK already.”

However, Rayment said any such service was “an awful long way off”, because of the difficulties in moving funding out of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and adult services to pay for it.

Stella Charman, an independent consultant to the Mental Health Foundation’s youth participation project Right Here, said examples of good youth mental health services already exist, such as YouthSpace in Birmingham.

She said: "I don't think it would take major restructuring, but there are some structural difficulties that would need to be overcome. It is a challenge for commissioners because it will require disinvestment in CAMHS and adult services."