Mental health: 'Urgent action needed over epidemic'

The new executive must act urgently if it is to "divert the current mental health epidemic among young people", Northern Ireland's children's commissioner has said.

Koulla Yiasouma said progress in implementing recommendations in a report on children and young people's mental health services, produced 12 months ago, had been "too slow". 

The stark read captured the scale of youth mental health problems in Northern Ireland. The report found that young people are waiting too long to ask for help and even longer to access the right support.

Health Minister Robin Swann said his aim was that young people do not wait longer than nine weeks to see a CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services) professional."I take the mental health and wellbeing of our children and young people very seriously and I am committed to working with my colleagues in a new executive working group on mental well-being, resilience and suicide prevention," he said.

Read full story

Source: 6 February 2020