The Brewing Mental Health Crisis Amongst Our Young

The pandemic is having untold strain on children's mental health. We must act to protect future generations from the incoming mental health epidemic.

Last week the children's commissioner, Anne Longfield, warned that young people's mental health services were unable to meet demand in a pandemic. Quoted in the Guardian, Anne Longfield stressed that the supply of treatment for child mental health problems was already falling well short of demand.

Earlier this year, one third of young people with a history of mental health needs say their mental health has worsened during the pandemic.

Locally, children and adolescents mental health services need to be able to meet the need. We must expand mental health services and treat mental health with the same importance as physical health.

It is vital that we act now to protect our young people who have suffered so much during the coronavirus pandemic.