SUICIDAL teens are being forced to take drastic measures to be seen by medical professionals, according to the testimony of a beleaguered healthcare worker.
A woman called Lisa told delegates at the Labour Party’s conference in Liverpool that a young person she worked with tried to take her own life after being told this that that was the only way she would get time with her GP.
Scottish Labour’s mental health spokesperson Carol Mochan called the story “devastating” and said it was indicative of the failures in Scotland’s NHS.
Lisa was a member of a focus group commissioned by the Scottish Fabians to try to discover what it would take for soft SNP voters to switch back to Labour.
At an event on the fringe of the Labour Party Conference, researchers shared clips of the participants talking about some of their concerns around the NHS and the cost-of-living crisis.
Lisa told the group: “So, one of my clients – actually a lot of my clients that I help fill out these forms for, they’re waiting 18 months for a mental health referral.
“And a lot of these people have been told by their doctor unless you are have attempted to commit suicide they can’t help you that and that is disgusting. It actually drove a young girl to try, which is beyond disgusting.”
Suicide was the leading cause of death among those aged five to 24 year old in Scotland between 2011 and 2020.
According to a new from Public Health Scotland released earlier this year, just over a quarter (25.7%) of all deaths in this age group were “probable suicide”, significantly higher than the figure among those aged 25 and over, which stands at just 1.2%.
There were 820 young people resident in Scotland who died by suicide during that decade. That is an average of nearly seven each month, considerably more than the number of young people who die in road accidents.
Those aged between five and 24 were significantly less likely to have had contact with a healthcare service in the period before their death than people aged 25 and over.
Meanwhile, mental health waiting times statistics for the end of 2021 showed that 1,880 children had been waiting for more than a year to access Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
Ms Mochan said: “These devastating personal stories shine a light on the damage being done by these shameful CAHMS waiting lists.
“A generation of young people is being failed by the crisis the SNP government have allowed to engulf our NHS.
“Scottish Labour will continue to call on the SNP-Green Government to stick to their commitment of prioritising mental health services including calling for the use of early intervention strategies."
Mental Wellbeing Minister Kevin Stewart said long waits were "unacceptable" and that Scotland's health boards were "working hard to clear backlogs to see those who have waited the longest first."
He added: "There has been an 8.6% decrease in those waiting over 18 weeks since the last quarter.
"We invested £40m in CAMHS in 2021/22, with £4.25m of that allocation directly focussed on offering treatment to those already on CAMHS waiting lists.
“We have also provided local authorities with £15 million through the Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework to fund community-based mental health support for children, young people and their families for whom CAMHS is not suitable or who are awaiting CAMHS treatment."
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