REDUCTION IN CHILD MENTAL HEALTH WAITING TIMES WELCOMED

Published date : 07 Mar 2017

Scotland’s Minister for Mental Health, Maureen Watt MSP has welcomed new figures published today which show that the number of children and young people seen by mental health service CAMHS within the target time has increased for the second quarter in a row.

The statistics published by ISD Scotland reveal that 82.5% of people were seen within 18 weeks between October and December 2016. This compares with 79.0% in the previous quarter and 76.2% at the same time last year. CAMHS workforce has increased by 49.1% since 2006 but has remained stable over the last year.

Commenting, Maureen Watt MSP said: “This continued reduction in waiting times is encouraging because it demonstrates that access to services is improving… However I’m clear that we must continue to reduce waiting times and I will not be satisfied until our 90% target is met.

“Our challenge now is to ensure this improvement is sustained, and to extend it to other parts of the country. In the coming weeks I will be publishing our new strategy for mental health. This will lay out how we will change services over the next decade, backed with £150 million of funding.”

NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Department Manager, Jacqueline Sproule, said: “The excellent results are the culmination of hard work and a recovery plan that made many small improvements in the way we work.

“Putting these together has really paid off along with the recruitment of extra specialist staff in all areas of the service. Our team have worked very hard to reduce waiting times as no-one wants to see children having to wait for help, especially those who are particularly vulnerable.”

Full mental health statistical publications can be read at: www.isdscotland.org.

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE, COMMUNITY, LOCAL GROUPS