Mental health will be the biggest problem facing young people by 2040, doctors warn
Joe Lepper
Thursday, February 25, 2021
The biggest challenge facing children and young people by 2040 will be poor mental health, according to a Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) report.
More than four out of ten (43 per cent) of RCPCH members said that poor mental health was the biggest future burden on children’s health services within the next 19 years.
The RCPCH predicts children’s doctors are set to spend more of their time working with young people with complex healthcare needs and working across both physical and mental health.
Mental health problems in children are already “increasing in number and severity,” says the college.
The findings have been published in the RCPCH report Paediatrics 2040 – Our vision for the future of paediatrics in the UK, which is the result of a three-year research project.
It is calling for paediatric services to collect data on children and young people not getting help straight away and to ensure mental health support can be adapted to provide online and phone support.
“For paediatricians, there will be a need for broader training that includes increased numbers with skills in dealing with mental health problems,” says the report.
The report also calls for “significantly improved integration across physical and mental health”.
It adds that there has already been a “dramatic increase” in mental health referrals for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) such as autism.
“However, the pathways for these children are complex, often involving social services and education as well as medical provision,” states the report.
“The failure to provide timely and effective services increases the vulnerability of these children, resulting in increased risk of harm especially to their mental health and resulting risk of self-harm and suicide.”
The second biggest health issues impacting children and young people by 2004 is set to be obesity, cited by almost a third (31 per cent) of RCPCH members. Poverty was mentioned as the biggest health issue by one in ten of those surveyed.
“Only by actively planning for the future can we hope to have some control over it,” said RCPCH president Professor Russell Viner.
“Paediatrics 2040 is a project which of course began way before the emergence of Covid-19. If nothing else, the pandemic has taught us that the future is partly unpredictable but partly something for which we can, and must be, better prepared.”
Youth services is another area seeing an increase in demand for mental health support from young people, according to a report by UK Youth released this week.