Psychotherapists warn against describing the needs of children with mental health problems as “low level”

The report that the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, published this week found that just over £14 (€16.30; $18.30) a child is spent by local authorities and the NHS in England on preventive “low level” mental health support, and that over a third of areas are seeing a cut in spen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inBMJ (Online) Vol. 365; p. l1780
Main Author Torjesen, Ingrid
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England BMJ Publishing Group LTD 12.04.2019
Subjects
Anxiety
Children
Children & youth
Early intervention
Funding
Mental disorders
Mental health
Primary care
Therapists
United Kingdom > UK
England
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The report that the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, published this week found that just over £14 (€16.30; $18.30) a child is spent by local authorities and the NHS in England on preventive “low level” mental health support, and that over a third of areas are seeing a cut in spending.1 Longfield said that these services were vital because they could prevent conditions from developing into much more serious illnesses which would need specialist intervention. The report defines low level services as non-specialist preventative and early intervention services for children and young people around mental health and emotional wellbeing which fall below the Tier 3 and Tier 4 specialist referral thresholds. Nick Waggett, chief executive of the Association of Child Psychotherapists, emphasised that the association welcomed the report which provides further evidence that children with anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions face a postcode lottery when seeking treatment.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0959-8138
1756-1833
DOI:10.1136/bmj.l1780