Child mental health admissions to acute wards in England rise 65% in a decade | Mental health

The number of children admitted to hospital acute wards in England due to serious concerns about their mental health has increased by 65% ​​in a decade, with a particularly worrying increase in girls who have self-harmed, a study has revealed.

Doctors treat nearly 40,000 children with severe mental ill health in general wards every year, compared to about 24,000 children 10 years ago. This increase is six times higher than the increase in pediatric admissions for all cases (10.1%) during the same period.

The Guardian previously revealed how to do this Increasing numbers of children were seeking help for mental health conditionsincluded Some who need emergency treatment Because they had to Wait a long time For regular NHS care. The Covid-19 pandemic, social inequality, austerity and internet-related harms are among a host of factors fueling the crisis.

New study Published in the journal Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, the journal Lancet Child & Adolescent Health highlights for the first time how increasing numbers are being admitted to acute hospital wards due to clinical concerns about their mental health status.

Acute general medical wards are specialist hospital wards designed to provide rapid assessment, treatment and care for patients. The units act as a bridge between emergency departments, GPs and other departments and are separate from specialist mental health wards such as eating disorders units.

Lead author of the study, Dr Lee Hudson from University College London, said: “Over the past decade, we have observed a significant rise in mental health admissions among children and young people on acute medical wards.

“Despite increasing interest in increasing referrals to community mental health services and inpatient mental health settings, admissions to general acute medical settings appear to be a missing piece of the puzzle to the story.”

Hudson said acute wards were increasingly playing a particularly vital role in caring for children with physical and mental health problems, such as hunger caused by eating disorders.

“However, the increased density we have described presents real challenges for acute wards, both for patients, their families and the staff who support them. They may not be equipped with an appropriate ward environment for this care, and sometimes the staff working there need further training and support with the relevant skills.” .

Hudson and colleagues found that mental health admissions for children aged 5 to 18 years on acute wards increased by 65% ​​from 24,198 in 2012/13 to 39,925 in 2021/22. According to the analysis, more than half (53.4%) were due to self-harm.

In comparison, there was a 10.1% rise in all-cause admissions over the same period, from 311,067 to 342,511.

Dr Karen Street of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Children’s Medicine health He said the 65% rise provided further evidence of the “alarming deterioration” in the mental health of children and young people.

The rise in mental health admissions was particularly sharp among girls aged 11 to 15, with the study also highlighting “sharp relative increases” among children aged 5 to 10 and “striking rates of self-harm.” In females.

There was also a rise in annual admissions for eating disorders, which rose from 478 to 2,938.

Of the 239,541 children and young people admitted with mental health concerns between 2012/13 and 2021/22, 13.4% were readmitted within six months.

Hudson and his colleagues are trying to figure out why more and more children are being admitted to acute medical wards for mental health reasons, he said.

“But it is likely that the greater prevalence of mental health problems, and perhaps the increased severity of individual cases, will lead to an increase in presentations to hospitals requiring emergency admission to a general ward because it is not safe for the patient to go home.”

Analysis Hudson said the increases were not just due to the pandemic, as there have been annual increases in the number of admissions since 2012.

“This problem appears to be now a core business of acute wards and is not going away, so a focus on improving care is essential.”

Clare Murdoch, Director of Mental Health England, said: NHS They responded to record numbers asking for help by deploying hundreds of mental health teams to schools and providing 24/7 crisis support via 111, but sometimes admission to hospital was in their best interests so they could get “intensive specialist support” and reduce Costs. Risk of damage.