THREAD >> I was really looking forward to the Government’s much anticipated Green Paper on young people’s mental health.
I’m flattered they’ve taken a proposal from our 2015 Labour manifesto (p.47) action.labour.org.uk/page/-/A4%20BI… 
But why must we wait for a 4 week waiting time target for CAMHS to be “phased in” beginning in “2019”? Everyone - young people, parents & teachers - say the longer people have to wait, the more likely it’s going to impact adversely on their life & ability to go to school/college.
We have waiting standards across other parts of the NHS - 4 hour waits in A&E, 2 week max wait for cancer diagnosis (granted they’re not being 100% met) - we need it for CAMHS. A trial will only tell us what we already know.
To actually deliver a 4 week target we need to address the issue of the shortage in child psychiatrists: theguardian.com/society/2017/s…
The government say they want school nurses involved. That’s going to be a bit tricky. We’ve lost quite a few (19%) since 2010. theguardian.com/education/2017…
They also want educational psychologists to help. Not sure if they got this memo 📝
schoolsweek.co.uk/educational-ps…
schoolsweek.co.uk/educational-ps…
These 3,000 new therapists we should be expecting in our schools - are they going to come from the workforce plan announced back in July? Not many people think that’s credible.
We’re told this is “new” money, in addition to the £1.25bn committed to young people’s mental health 2 years 8 months ago when Future in Mind was launched (lots of things not done in this plan....) gov.uk/government/upl…
But we already know that the Government has underspent the money they committed to this - theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2017…
And the £300m they have announced for this is over three years. £300m is how much it costs to run the NHS for a day.
This is the bit that kills me. I don’t normally swear on Twitter, but WTF? WTAF? 5 years to wait for 20% of schools.
“An unspecified time in the 2020s” could be 13 yrs before we actually see proper change for the remaining 80% of children.
“An unspecified time in the 2020s” could be 13 yrs before we actually see proper change for the remaining 80% of children.
The truth is that too many young people’s #mentalhealth services are being cut. Here in Liverpool our key young people’s #mentalhealth service @YPASLiverpool has seen a savage cut, this financial year, of 43% - £757,000
We’ve also seen cuts to #mentalhealth support for young carers and child bereavement services. Here’s a list of some of the services affected in my area: google.co.uk/amp/www.liverp…
We could as a country actually make the greatest difference by focusing on prevention & minimise the factors that lead our children to experience mental ill health - neglect, abuse, childhood trauma, poverty, domestic violence, bullying, insecure housing.
It’s what happens before & out of school which will ultimately make the difference. Here’s an infographic which exposes the effect adverse childhood experiences have on our adult physical/mental health.Hey it may be one of the reasons why Labour built 3,000+ Children’s Centres 🤔
And yet we’ve lost countless services in our communities which make a difference to keeping young people well- youth services, leisure & recreation, the Early Integration Grant, support for new Mums and Dads, the list is very long....
This is all important because there are too many children who need help than don’t get it. Who get knocked back because they don’t meet the “threshold” to acces services. Who have to wait far too long *if* they get into services.
And whose life chances and life outcomes are being diminished because of it. We desperately need something radical to improve our nation’s mental health crisis (yes, CRISIS). If the reports out today are the highlights/goodies, then this Green Paper most certainly isn’t it. ENDS
