February 19th 2024
Rise in calls to Childline about inpatient mental health treatment
The number of young people contacting Childline about inpatient mental health concerns has jumped by almost a fifth in the last year.
The charity delivered 621 counselling sessions in 2023 where being sectioned or hospitalised for mental health issues was discussed, up 18% on the previous year.
A new briefing from the NSPCC, which runs Childline, revealed that young people often feel they are not listened to during their admissions, treatment and discharge from hospital settings, including when important decisions are made about their care.
The briefing said that some young people found it difficult to find support post-discharge, particularly when moving from child to adult mental health services.
There was pressure for young people to get ‘better’ and no longer have mental health issues once discharged, presenting a barrier to seeking out support.
There were also examples of young people who felt they needed to hurt themselves to access further support in a psychiatric hospital setting.
‘When young people made efforts to be part of conversations about their mental health treatment plans, they sometimes felt dismissed and not listened to,’ the briefing said, ‘with children suggesting they had to put their safety at risk to reach a ‘threshold’ where they would get the help they needed.’
Vicky Nevin, policy manager at the NSPCC, said: ‘Mental health is the number one reason children and young people contact Childline. Some need a listening ear and access to early mental health support while others are already receiving treatment but feel ignored when decisions are being made about their care.
‘Preventative mental health support should be available for every baby, child and young person. But there will always be some who need more specialist care in a hospital, and they should be treated with compassion and respect. They should understand what is happening to them and be given a say in what will help.
‘We need ambitious commitments from party leaders to improve mental health support for children and to put their voices at the heart of policy making.’
Alongside Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the Children’s Society and the National Children’s Bureau, the NSPCC is urging all political parties to address the escalating mental health crisis faced by young people.
The charities are seeking significant investment in improving young people’s mental health and wellbeing as part of an overall call to increase the proportion of national wealth spent on children.
Image: Gilles Lambert
Young people’s mental health has become a major concern for Liverpool Council