Children's mental disorders linked to council budget cuts

Rising rates of mental health disorders among children are linked to council budget cuts and health restructuring that have denied vulnerable young people early help, the Children's Commissioner for England has told MPs.

Dr. Maggie Atkinson said more children and young people with mental health problems were being admitted to adult psychiatric wards.

In written evidence to the Health Select Committee, which is holding an inquiry into the Children's and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), she said: "It cannot be coincidental that the increasing concerns about child and adolescent mental health coincides with the biggest reconfiguration of health and social care services, reductions in preventative and early intervention budgets and local CAMHS budgets and therefore spending, in a generation."

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