London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – More than 500 children in England are being referred to NHS mental health services for anxiety, more than double the rate before the pandemic.
In 2023-24 there were 204,526 new referrals of patients aged 17 or under where the immediate cause was anxiety, official figures reveal. In 2019-20, the year before Covid-19 hit, the total was 98,953. In 2016-17 it was 3,879. The alarming growth means children are now being referred to NHS mental health services in England for anxiety at a pace of one every three minutes or almost 4,000 a week.
What Factors Are Behind the Significant Rise in Children Seeking Help for Anxiety?
Doctors, NHS officials and health leaders stated in interviews that the overflow in anxiety referrals was “staggering” and “shocking” and spread bare an urgent need to tackle the problem in children’s mental health. Officials expressed the rise in demand for care was testing the capacity of the health service to deliver timely treatment for anxiety, with thousands of children on “unacceptably long” waiting lists. They said that holding to treatment risked causing additional harm at a crucial stage of their development.
NHS data does not document the reasons for referrals for anxiety, but professionals surveyed noted a range of factors behind the peak in children experiencing the condition. They include boosting academic pressures, particularly connected to exams, the powerful influence of social media and cyberbullying, increasing pressures around appearance, widening inequalities, increasing poverty levels and the cost of living crisis.
How Are Experts Responding to the Sharp Increase in Anxiety Cases Among Children?
Experts stated the pandemic had generated “significant disruption” to children’s lives and amplified all the other coercion they already faced. More than four years after COVID-19 first struck, many children remain sceptical about the world around them and worried about their future, the experts said.
Andy Bell, the chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, a charity, stated: “These stark figures highlight the urgency of addressing children and young people’s mental health today. In the last few years, particularly since 2020, there has been a sharp elevation in the numbers of children and young people conveying diagnosable levels of mental health difficulties, including anxiety.” Bell expressed the new data told only a part of the story. Many children concerned were not seeking support despite rising awareness, he said, “so these figures are likely to be the tip of the iceberg”