Children and young people with high levels of mental health needs are struggling to receive the help they need, or to have their difficulties recognized, according to a new study. The STADIA trial, which is published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , was led by experts from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, and was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The large study, which spans different parts of England, involved 1,225 children and young people with emotional difficulties who had been referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for help, and followed them up over 18 months to see how they got on.
The children and young people in this group were found to have high levels of mental health needs, with 67% scoring very high for at least one emotional disorder, most commonly depression or an anxiety disorder. Despite this, only 11% received a clinical diagnosis of an emotional disorder from CAMHS. Only 44% of children and young people had their referral to CAMHS accepted, and 35% required a re-referral to CAMHS, suggesting that there were delays in receiving help.
One year after their referral, these children and young people did not seem to improve. Their mental health difficulties continued to remain at a severe level over this period, with high levels of self-reported and parent-reported mental health symptoms, functional impairment, and self-harm thoughts and behaviour, even at 12 m.