Call For Urgent Action On Youth Mental Health

The Stormont Executive must act urgently to divert the current mental health epidemic, Northern Ireland's Commissioner for Children and Young People has demanded.

While government ministers are considering actions, "children are still waiting and some are tragically dying", according to Koulla Yiasouma.

The Commissioner said work to implement recommendations made in a report on the current state of young people's mental health has been "too slow".

The blueprint plan for service reform was submitted to government one year ago.

"If reform was urgent in 2018, then it's critical now," Ms Yiasouma said. "It will come as no surprise to children and young people, their families and support workers that progress has been slow."

The commissioner welcomed the fact that children in some areas now have access to mental health professionals through the roll out of multi-disciplinary teams in GP surgeries and Northern Ireland's first Children and Young People's Mental Health Prevalence study is underway.

Commitments to transforming the system, however, remain "too vague and unambitious" warned Ms Yiasouma amid concerns for a care plan for young people with disabilities or drug or alcohol related problems.

"There is not enough money in the system, and it is nonsensical to throw the very limited budget we do have into the air, hoping it lands in the right place. Planning must be based on robust data and at the minute we do not know enough about how well services are responding to our children and young people. For example, while we know how long children wait for an appointment to assess their needs we have no idea how long they wait for subsequent treatment, because it is not recorded nor do we have information on outcomes following an intervention.

"The data we do get is sometimes up to a year out of date. That is no basis for Government to provide a fully costed and ambitious plan to transform a system that is failing to meet the emotional wellbeing and mental health needs of our children and young people."

The Commissioner urged government ministers to gear up and accelerate progress on children's mental health services.

"This is crucial if we are to address the crisis that our children and young people currently face," she added.

"The NI Executive is not starting with a blank page on this issue. It is my hope and indeed expectation that the implementation of all my recommendations will be included in the Mental Health Action Plan that is due to be published in the coming weeks."



(JG/CM)