Marginalised children worst hit by Covid mental health crisis, MPs warn

These groups of children already faced a greater risk of mental health problems prior to the pandemic, says the House of Commons health and social care committee report on children and young people’s mental health.

But this has been heightened during the Covid crisis and lockdowns, as these groups of children faced increasing barriers to accessing support, social isolation and uncertainty around their education.

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“People who already had a mental health problem were really affected,” said Mind external relations director Sophie Corlett, who was among experts to give evidence to MPs.

Most at risk groups include children living in poverty and from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, she told MPs.

Has the provision of mental health services for children and young people improved?

You can read a summary of our report published today, and our key recommendations here ⬇️

— Health and Social Care Committee (@CommonsHealth) December 9, 2021

Another children’s organisation to give evidence was the National Children’s Bureau, which told MPs that LGBTQ+ teenagers were twice as likely as their heterosexual peers to report mental distress and three times as likely to report self-harm and have suicidal thoughts.

Among experts to highlight challenges in accessing support faced by marginalised groups of children during the pandemic, was Samaritans chief executive Julie Bentley.

“Young people from LGBT communities are struggling to access services and face real barriers around those services,” she told MPs.

She added: “We already know that structural inequalities in the design of services mean that young people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds often struggle to access the services, particularly young black men.

“We have a huge amount to do to make sure not only that we have the services for all young people, but that we have thought about specific and cultural needs so that no young person is left out in the cold from services.”

Among recommendations made in the report is a call from Mental Health Foundation chief executive Mark Rowland to improve public access to data to “enable improved understanding of which groups of children and young people are facing specific risks”.

The committee’s report says that is “unacceptable” that children with a diagnosable condition pre-pandemic continue to struggle to access support.

It is calling for the NHS to offer more mental health support for young people up to the age of 25, to avoid a missing out on care as they move from children to adult services.

Open access community mental health support should be rolled-out England-wide to support government investment in offering school-based help, adds the report.

“Partly because of the pandemic, we are seeing demand for mental health treatment pushing NHS services to breaking point,” said committee chair Jeremy Hunt.

“Whilst we recognise that capacity to provide such services is increasing, we are not convinced it is happening at a fast enough rate.” 

He also criticised the lack of community support for young people at risk of serious mental health crisis as well as for those “who end up in appropriate secure provision”.

Kadra Abdinasir, strategic lead for the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, said the MPs’ report highlights “a lack of urgency and ambition” to improve mental health support.

She said that recent government investment to provide mental health support teams in schools and colleges “is not enough to meet the scale of need”.

“The findings are clear: the government can no longer under-deliver on the commitments made to improve children and young people’s mental health support. Urgent action is needed to create a comprehensive, cross-government approach that prioritises and invests in the mental health of babies, children and young people,” she added.

The report from @CommonsHealth on children's mental health confirms what we have known for too long, that mental health services are still far from delivering effective care for babies, children and young people.

A thread on our response🧵👇https://t.co/csGK9m5YRs

— Children & Young People's Mental Health Coalition (@CYPMentalHealth) December 9, 2021

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health president Camilla Kingdon said that government action to improve support for children with mental health issues “is sorely needed”.

She said: “The negative impacts of the pandemic have disproportionately impacted children and young people, especially those from the most deprived backgrounds.”

Meanwhile, in Scotland it has emerged that 1,978 children have been waiting for more than a year for support from child and adolescent mental health services, more than double the previous year’s figure of 959.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition says the figures highlight the urgent need for an increase in funding for support services.

“There must be a radical transformation of our mental health services, investing in specialist services and with a focus on preventing such problems arising in the first place and intervening early,” said a coalition spokesperson.