Mental Health waiting-times targets missed for more than quarter of adults

Waiting-times targets for specialist mental health care are not being met for more than a quarter of adults and one in six youngsters, new figures have revealed.

The data, which covers the first three months of this year, also showed the 18-week waiting-time target for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) was achieved for less than half of all patients in two health boards.

NHS Grampian met the target for just 45.2% of those who started treatment over the January-March period while in NHS Lothian the target was met for 47.8% of youngsters - with 10.3% of children and young people in the area having waited more than a year for help.

At the end of March, there were 6,932 children and young people waiting for help from CAMHS, up from 6,359 at the end of December, according to NHS statistics.

At the same time, there were 20,952 adults waiting for psychological treatments, compared to 20,195 in December.

The Scottish Government has set the target of having 90% of patients start their treatment within 18 weeks of being referred for specialist mental health care.

Across Scotland over the January-March period, this was achieved for 83.6% of CAMHS patients and 73.7% of adults.

There were 10 NHS boards who met the waiting-time target for CAMHS treatment but only three health boards who met it for adult psychological care.

In the NHS Forth Valley area, only 40% of those starting treatment between January and March were seen within 18 weeks, with an average wait of 25 weeks.

Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said the figures showed mental health services are worse than this time last year''.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, health spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, branded the figures “scandalous”.

He said: “Intolerable waits for mental-health treatment are the price that children and adults are paying for the SNP's independence obsession.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton said some children were waiting more than 600 days for help, adding: “We have heard the SNP's warm words on mental health time after time.

“They have some nerve because the truth is waiting-times are now the worst on record.”

Children's campaigners also said they were “deeply concerned” about the issue.

A spokesman for the Scottish Children's Services Coalition (SCSC) said: “These figures highlight that four of our health boards were failing to meet maximum waiting-times, a clear 'postcode lottery' when it comes to treatment.

“In addition, 74 of those with mental health problems were waiting more than a year to be seen and we are deeply concerned about what is happening to the more than a fifth of children and young people not accepted for treatment.

“There is a need for an urgent inquiry to ascertain why these young people are being rejected for treatment and what is happening to them.”

“Research indicates that 10% of children and young people aged five to 16 has a clinically diagnosable mental health problem - around three in every classroom - and 20% of adolescents may experience a mental health problem in any given year.”

Mental health minister Maureen Watt said there had been an “encouraging” reduction in CAMHS waiting times, pointing out 10 NHS boards had met the target in January to March, compared with seven in the last three months of 2016

She added: “I'm clear that we must continue to reduce waiting times and I will not be satisfied until our target is met sustainably.

“We will continue to work with boards to make sure that happens right across Scotland and the mental health access improvement support team, which has delivered significant improvements in NHS Forth Valley, are working in partnership with boards to deliver sustained improvements.

“Our recently-published ten-year strategy for mental health sets out a range of measures that focus on prevention and early intervention to meet the mental-health needs of children and young people, backed by £150 million of funding.”