Children’s Mental Health

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dr Allin-Khan]

As always, my right hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for all groups, but particularly when it comes to black and minority ethnic groups. We do not have the data—we do not collect the data—even to understand the scale of the issue. I think that that is convenient for the Government, because it means they do not have to accept that there is a problem which needs to be dealt with.

That is one of the issues for the future. We have to understand the true scale of the issue when it comes to some minority groups, and tailor support that helps them specifically. When people from minority groups are seeking help, often it is so difficult for them to make a connection with people who understand some of the particular social pressures they live with at home and some of the societal issues they have to deal with that also contribute to mental ill health—for example, systemic racism. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to bring that up.

We have a range of public health measures in place for children—check-ups for eyesight, hearing and growth—and vaccinations to protect against measles, mumps and rubella, yet we ignore the wisdom of the ages when it comes to children’s mental health. As a doctor, I know that adverse childhood experiences are a key contributing factor to poor mental health in adulthood. In A&E, I see increasingly younger children coming in having self-harmed or living with eating disorders. It is simply heartbreaking, and for parents it is absolutely agonising. Parents bring their children to A&E wondering why they are fainting repeatedly and are constantly exhausted.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree with me as a parent—we are both parents and many of us here are parents of school-age children—that the coronavirus crisis hit everyone with kids? I have 13 private schools within my constituency boundary, and I even have parents of children there emailing in that their kids, who were happy and outgoing children, are zonked in front of Teams meetings all day and have turned into blithering wrecks of what they used to be. Coronavirus exacerbated what was a problem with CAMHS all the way along and that has hit all children in this country, and the only people who will not recognise it are Conservative Members, who are in denial because they have their own internal problems to be dealing with.

[Dr Allin-Khan]

I thank my hon. Friend for her very powerful point. When it comes to mental ill health, no group is unaffected. It is really important that we acknowledge that, while some groups are disproportionately affected, mental ill health can affect anyone. Children can live in a £3 million house, and still feel they want to take their own life or want to self-harm. The pressure that puts on parents is extremely painful, and it causes many parents to give up their job to sit at home and care for their child, because they are so crippled and so worried about what may happen if they leave the house and go to work. That is why it is so important that we acknowledge the real difficulty we have with waiting times for CAMHS.