Children’s Mental Health

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

I will focus on a few key points. On in-patient treatment for children in severe mental health crisis, the Health and Social Care Committee’s report last year found that

“there are too many children and young people in inpatient units subject to inappropriate care: far from home, without adequate understanding of their rights, and subject to restrictive interventions.”

Being far from home is a particular issue—so many children are being sent out of county and too far away for their families to visit. That is a particular problem for young people with eating disorders, because the beds are commissioned nationally, so even those who are clinically high priority may be sent out of county and isolated from their support networks. A recent BBC investigation found that children struggling with mental health problems during the pandemic faced agonisingly long waits for treatment, with more than one in five waiting more than 12 weeks, and doctors reported that distressed children ended up in A&E as they had nowhere else to go.

Another point that I want to make to the Minister—I know he is not a Health Minister, but I hope he will pass it on to his colleagues—is about the suitability of A&E for people presenting in mental health crisis. The number of A&E attendances by young people aged 18 or under with a recorded diagnosis of a psychiatric condition has tripled since 2010.

In Bristol we have a pilot of a separate room for autistic children who come to A&E, which is a hideous place to be, as hon. Members can imagine, even if someone has just burned their hand or something. There are bright lights, sirens and people rushing around—it is a whole sensory overload—especially at times when we know that A&E is full of people who are drunk, aggressive or violent. That can really add to a child’s distress.

Bristol is piloting a scheme where children are put in a separate place, but I would argue that A&E is not an appropriate place for anyone having a mental health crisis. For example, someone having a psychotic episode should not be sitting in A&E. I hope that the Government will look at that—I think Oxford is thinking about how it can separate that out. Connected to that, youngsters are often being treated for mental health conditions on general wards, because the beds are not available, but obviously they do not get the specialist support that they need there.

Adverse childhood experiences have been mentioned. We must look at prevention, whether that is children suffering abuse in the home, domestic violence, extreme poverty, neglect or abandonment—we have seen so many terrible stories recently. We need to recognise how traumatic that is for children and build that into our services.

I will give one example. When mothers and children are fleeing an abusive situation at home, they should not be put in temporary accommodation that they might share with people who are addicts or who have mental health problems and can be aggressive. We need to make sure that they have a safe place to stay.

[Several hon. Members rose—]