Barnet (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Barnet recorded 135 hospital admissions for self-harm among 10–24-year-olds in a year, bucking the national trend of declining rates across England.
According to recent data, over 100 children and youth in Barnet were admitted to hospitals after self-harming last year.
Charity for mental health Since many young people are still waiting to receive mental health support and treatment, Mind said it is “difficult” to comprehend how the overall number of admissions across England has fallen.
The organization also urged the government to address the issue of growing waiting lists.
According to recent NHS England data, approximately 135 hospital admissions of individuals between the ages of 10 and 24 due to self-harm occurred in Barnet in the year ending March 2024, which is consistent with the previous year.
This indicates that there were approximately 174 admissions of this cohort per 100,000 residents in the region, which is less than the average of 267 admissions per 100,000 residents in England.
To the closest five, all local counts are rounded.
In 2023–2024 there were 27,736 such admissions nationwide. It was the lowest number since records began in 2011–12 and a 15% decrease from the previous year’s number of 32,624.
Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and campaigns at Mind, said:
“It’s difficult to know what might be driving these figures, but regardless, we know there is still a long way to go to improve mental health support for young people.”
He warned that lengthy wait times “risk people experiencing a worsening of their mental health, which can increase the need for more complex treatment and support.” He claimed that over 600,000 young people are currently waiting for access to mental health treatment and support.
He added:
“This is all happening at a time when the UK Government has reduced the proportion of NHS spending on mental health.
All our young people should be able to access timely and quality mental health support, which is why we urgently need a dedicated plan to tackle mental health waiting lists.”
According to the data, there was a notable difference in the frequency of hospital admissions between men and women: 104 per 100,000 men and 433 per 100,000 women aged 10 to 24 were admitted to hospitals due to self-harm in the previous year.
Young women are “at particular risk” of self-harming, according to Alexa Knight, director of the Mental Health Foundation, who urged the government to enact specific legislation to safeguard their mental health.
Although self-harm-related hospital admissions have declined in England, she continued, it is “almost certainly too early to consider this a success.” She also added that fewer hospitalizations do not equate to a decrease in child and youth self-harm.
“Much more needs to be done by the government to put in place and properly fund the early, community or school-based interventions that help young people not only recover when they are struggling with their mental health, but stay mentally healthy in the first place,”
she said.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:
“The fall in the number of hospital admissions as a result of self-harm is welcome, but we know there are still too many young people not getting the mental healthcare they need.
We are investing an extra £680 million in mental health, to introduce mental health support in every school, recruit 8,500 more mental health staff and funding NHS Talking Therapy services for 380,000 extra patients.”
He said that there is still a long way to go, but through their Plan for Change, they are putting NHS mental health services on the road to recovery.
What factors contribute to the higher rates of self-harm admissions in Barnet?
Admissions are highest among individuals between the ages of 10 and 19, and rates are much greater for females (108 per 100,000) than for males (33 per 100,000).
According to Barnet, a significant percentage of schoolchildren (2.9%) with social, emotional, and mental health problems as well as adults with clinically meaningful depression symptoms have increased. With 25.2% of respondents reporting high anxiety scores, anxiety levels are still high.
In Barnet, the proportion of people living in regions with limited access to healthy resources and dangers has more than doubled, rising to 55.3% in 2022—higher than the national average for England. This implies that mental health issues and the risk of self-harm may be influenced by social and environmental factors.
Research indicates that hospitalization rates for self-harm differ by ethnicity.