Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what efforts they are making to address the lack of access to mental health services for young people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

The Department has not made an assessment of the level of mental health resources and support currently available to young people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. Commissioners and providers of NHS services are required to ensure that the services they commission or provide operate in such a way to meet the needs of diverse groups, including people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce considered the mental health needs of all children and young people. As part of this work, a specific group was set up to look at the needs of vulnerable groups and inequalities. A report from this group was published alongside the Future in mind report.

The Department is commissioning a new prevalence survey for children and young people’s mental health. We anticipate that the new survey will report on ethnicity, which would provide us with more up-to-date information on the mental health needs of children and young people from Black and Minority Ethnic groups.

Difficulties may arise preventing access to mental health services by members of some communities due to the stigma attached to mental illness among those communities. We believe that Time to Change, a joint anti-stigma campaign led by Mind and Rethink, is addressing this issue and we are considering how best to help.