Wiltshire children waiting months for mental health assessments
Early intervention chances are being missed
Children in Wiltshire are being forced to wait months for an assessment of their mental health without the guarantee of being accepted into a treatment service.
The latest data from the Children’s Commissioner report about Children’s mental health services in 2022-23, young people in Wiltshire are waiting an average of 116 days to access Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS).
During that time, 4,900 children were referred, but many are finding they don't meet the threshold for specialist care and the months spent on waiting lists mean they're missing out on early intervention opportunities.
NHS Mental Health Nurse Specialist Emma Taylor told Greatest Hits Radio the data is concerning, but not a surprise.
"We've seen the need for services increasing year on year for a long time, and as that waiting list increases, we're also seeing the number of young people accepted into services go down," she said.
It means children are reaching the front of the queue and aren't being accepted into treatment services.
Emma said: "We have a whole generation of young people asking for support that they're simply not getting."
Vital chances to intervene being lost
As the wait for assessments goes on, children's mental health is worsening, because early interventions are being missed.
"Many people are getting to the assessment point and being sent home with self help or early intervention tools," Emma said, adding: "They can be really useful, if they're deployed at the right time."
But with the extensive waiting lists, by the time children are assessed, it's too late.
And the impact is being felt most by children under the age of 10.
Emma told us: "Because their presentations tend to be more in terms of behavioural things such as difficulty sleeping or tantrums or separation difficulties, as opposed to things like self harm or suicidal ideation, they're even less likely to be accepted to a service than a teenager."
As a result, parents are being forced into spending thousands of pounds on private assessments - but they're often not accepted by schools, meaning they still need an NHS assessment.
And parents are turning to google and social media for help 'decoding' their child's behaviour, something Emma warns against.
"They are very unregulated areas where anybody can put out an opinion and dress it up as fact. And as a result, people are ending up with inappropriate information that isn't safe," she said.
New mental wellbeing app being trialled
But Emma's attempting to bridge the gap for young people.
She's part of a team that's created an app called Embers the Dragon, to improve children's mental health and wellbeing.
The app aims to develop children's emotional skills through the use of digital games and activities.
It includes animated videos that children can watch, which are underpinned by an emotional development skill.
"It might be understanding how anger feels in your body, for example, and children just watch them as part of their normal kind of little bit of screen time. But actually, they're taking on really important learning."
It's currently being trialled by the London South Bank University and is open to children between three and seven years old.