SAMH Comment on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

5th September 2018

Yesterday was a big day of announcements on mental health from the Scottish Government in their Programme for Government.  In particular SAMH welcomes the emphasis on children and young people’s mental health.  These announcements came on the same day as the latest quarterly figures on waiting times for accessing CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) which reveals the situation is worsening. Young people continue to wait too long to access treatment alongside an increase in the numbers of young people being rejected, compared to last quarter.  

SAMH has been campaigning and commenting on this issue over the last two years, launching our Going To Be campaign in 2017 highlighting the urgency of need which must be Scotland’s priority.  Our most recent work on the CAMHS rejected referrals audit deepened our understanding of the situation and devastating effect of rejection on young people which is described as ‘totally unacceptable’ by the Minister for Mental Health.

Scottish Government need to follow through on these commitments and we will continue to monitor the situation.