Children waiting years for mental health treatment

Published on Monday 10 October 2011 00:06

Some children can face a wait of up to three and a half years before receiving treatment for mental health problems, a Conservative MSP has revealed.

A freedom of information request to mainland NHS boards carried out by Mary Scanlon has shown that waiting times for adult psychology, psychiatric treatment and cognitive behavioural therapies (CBT) can also run into years.

Ms Scanlon has urged the Scottish Government to take immediate action to ensure that it meet its target to reduce mental health waiting times to 26 weeks by 2013.

She said: “We simply cannot afford to neglect the mental health of Scottish children. If the Scottish Government are going to reach their target then action must be taken now to reduce these current waiting times.

The NHS figures reveal that child psychology waiting times range from 16 weeks in Dumfries and Galloway to 182 weeks in Tayside.

The longest waiting time for adult CBT was 112 weeks in NHS Highland. NHS Tayside had the longest waits for wwadult psychology and psychiatry appointments at 134 weeks and 116 weeks respectively.

Nearly half of NHS boards failed to provide data.