Campaigners warn of 'alarming' rise in teenage suicides
Nicole Weinstein
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Campaigners are calling for dedicated mental health support in schools after figures revealed that suicide rates among 15- to 19-year-olds in England have reached their highest point in 30 years.
Data from the Office for National Statistics, analysed by youth mental health charity YoungMinds, found that suicide rates rose by a third from 2020 to 2021, with 147 young people aged 15 to 19 taking their own lives in 2020, rising to 198 in 2021.
The number of young people being referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has also reached a record high, with NHS figures showing a 23 per cent rise the number of under-18s needing NHS treatment than at the same point last year.
In the first quarter of 2022, 241,791 young people were referred to the NHS – already half the total figure referred in the whole of last year – and are yet to be treated and remain on waiting lists.
YoungMinds fears that schools are “picking up the pieces for overstretched services”, after two thirds of the 1,000 teachers it surveyed between 26 August and 5 September said they dealt with mental health issues in their school on a “daily basis”.
Emma Thomas, chief executive of YoungMinds, said: “Young people are struggling to access the support they desperately need and the dramatic rise in suicides is truly alarming.
“We know that professionals, from the NHS to school classrooms, are doing all they can to support the record numbers of young people struggling with their mental health but without government support, they can only offer a sticking plaster."
YoungMinds is calling for more resources for the NHS so that young people can access help quickly, along with dedicated mental health support in every school.
The charity has also launched EndTheWait, a campaign calling on the new Health Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, to re-commit to a cross-department mental health plan, with young people at the heart of it. It is calling for supporters to sign on the card, which will personally be delivered to Coffey.
Meanwhile, England’s former children’s commissioner, Anne Longfield, who now heads up the Commission on Young Lives, last week told a committee of politicians reviewing the Children and Families Act 2014 that she was “shocked” by the number of teachers who have told her recently that suicide attempts and self-harm are “just part and parcel of everyday life”.
She added: “Only 25 per cent of children are seen [by CAHMS] and receive treatment in the four-week period. We need to get that back into a functional place. Also, within that, we need to expand the mental health teams in schools.”
