2.6 million UK citizens currently have an open referral within mental health services. 560,000 of these are under the age of 18, 75% of whom aren’t receiving any treatment. Considering that 75% of mental health issues begin before the age of 18 and 50% before 14, the 420,000 kids that are being left without help, constitutes a national disgrace, particularly as this situation directly contributed to the more than 6,000 under 18’s suicides in 2017, to 1 in 4 girls self-harming and to a generation that feels increasingly abandoned and exiled.
Children wait more than 9000 days for help which is often delivered as safeguarding in a mental hospital costing £429 per night, waiting up to 3 months for treatment. The average stay is 2-3 weeks, costing circa £9,000 to the taxpayer, only to see 11,700 readmitted in weeks. So much wasted money but more importantly so many wasted lives.
With demand so far outstripping supply in public services, the young person and their family are often “encouraged” to seek private help as the only realistic alternative. But it’s very hard to locate and very costly.
Introducing Buddy