Increase in mental health conditions in children and young people

The proportion of children and young people saying they have a mental health condition has grown six fold in England over two decades and has increased significantly across the whole of Britain in recent years, finds a new study co-led by UCL researchers. In 1995, just 0.8% of 4-24 year olds in England reported a long-standing mental health condition. By 2014 this had increased to 4. Looking across England, Scotland and Wales between 2008 and 2014, reports of a mental health condition in England and Scotland, and reports of treatment for one in Wales, grew by 60%, 75% and 41% respectively, according to the study published in Psychological Medicine . The study is the first national-level investigation in over a decade into trends in mental health problems in children and young people in the UK, and was a collaboration between academics at UCL, Imperial College London, University of Exeter, and the Nuffield Trust. "We know that there is already a growing crisis in the availability of child and adolescent mental health services, with many more children and young people needing treatment than there are services to provide it. Our study suggests that this need is likely to continue to grow in future," said the study's lead author, Dr Dougal Hargreaves (Nuffield Trust), who began the study at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health before moving to Imperial College London.