‘Alarming’ global surge in mental ill-health and public awareness leaving NHS unable to cope with demand

There has been a “dangerous” and “alarming” global surge in mental ill health among young people, a new report has found.

The research from The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health found that mental ill-health accounts for at least 45% of the overall burden of disease in people aged 10 to 24 – yet only 2% of global health budgets are devoted to mental health care.

Professor Patrick McGorry, an Australian psychiatrist who led the research, said: “This is the most serious public health problem we’ve got. If the rapid deterioration in health was happening in any other health area, like diabetes or cancer, there would be dramatic actions taken by governments.”

The report has coincided with comments from a mental health expert that public awareness of mental health problems has resulted in the NHS struggling to cope with demand for its services

According to Professor Sir Simon Wessely, a non-executive director of NHS England who was president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists from 2014-17,  young people were “dramatically more likely” to talk about their mental health than previous generations. He added: “I went to every medical school, spoke to 40 different groups of students. And invariably they reported much higher rates of poor mental wellbeing and mental health problems.

“But actually, when you push them a bit, they weren’t talking about the kind of disorders that we’re talking about — depression, anxiety and so on.

“They were talking about loneliness, homesickness, exam stress, academic pressure, concerns about climate change, which we probably wouldn’t really classify as mental disorders because they don’t really respond to the kind of psychological treatments we give.”

Almost one in four young people from Gen Z (those born after 1997) say they have a long-term mental health condition, compared with an average of 8% of all adults, according to a survey carried out earlier this month.

Wessely said that increased awareness of mental health problems was not necessarily a good thing. “This is also driving up demand, which in fact the NHS is not set up to meet,” he said. “Therefore, continuing mental health awareness may not be [as] beneficial as it was 10, 20, 30 years ago.”

Vulnerable children more likely to be rejected for mental health support

This additional pressure on mental health services is having a disproportionate impact on children in deprived areas, research has found. A new study from the University of Cambridge and the National Children’s Bureau found that some of the most vulnerable children are more likely to be rejected for mental health support than their peers.

The study, which analysed thousands of records at an NHS trust in London, discovered that children from the most deprived areas were twice as likely to be turned away from services as those from the least deprived areas. Those with general social work involvement were more than three times as likely to be rejected, according to analysis of more than 71,000 records.

Prof Robbie Duschinsky of the University of Cambridge, and one of the study’s authors, said: “These are sad findings and surprising to many of us.” He added: “Our research was prompted by discussions with people with lived experiences, who urged us to look at inequalities in access to mental health services for the most vulnerable groups of children.”