̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - NHS Digital

New report highlights increase in number of children and young people with eating disorders

cjb250 — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 12:44:52 +0000

̽��ֱ��report is a follow on from the 2017 survey, which six years ago reported an upswing in anxiety, depression and self-harm among young women.

Among other key findings were:

After a rise in prevalence between 2017 and 2020, rates of probable mental disorder remained stable in all age groups between 2022 and 2023.
Among eight to 16 year olds, rates of probable mental disorder were similar for boys and girls, while for 17 to 25 year olds, rates were twice as high for young women than young men.
In 2023, eating disorders were identified in one in eight (12.5%) of 17 to 19 year olds, with rates four times higher in young women (20.8%) than young men (5.1%).
More than one in four children aged eight to 16 years (26.8%) with a probable mental disorder had a parent who could not afford for their child to take part in activities outside school or college, compared with one in 10 (10.3%) of those unlikely to have a mental disorder.
17 to 25 year olds with a probable mental disorder were three times more likely to not be able to afford to take part in activities such as sports, days out, or socialising with friends, compared with those unlikely to have a mental disorder (26.1% compared with 8.3%).
Children aged 11 to 16 years with a probable mental disorder were five times more likely than those unlikely to have a mental disorder to have been bullied in person (36.9% compared with 7.6%). They were also more likely to have been bullied online (10.8% compared with 2.6%).

Professor Tamsin Ford, Head of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and one of the research leads for the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital, was one of the report’s authors. She said: “These figures confirm that the huge increase in referrals to clinics for eating disorder services is not just the result of more children and young people seeking help, it’s a sign of more children and young people needing help. There is no single silver bullet to fixing this problem. All services working with children must pull together.”

While not every young person with an eating disorder will require inpatient care, for those that do Professor Ford says Cambridge Children’s Hospital, with its vision of integrated mental and physical healthcare will vastly improve treatment and outcomes.

“These are conditions to be taken very seriously. ̽��ֱ��benefit of having integrated paediatric physical and mental healthcare for children and young people diagnosed with eating disorders is huge,” said Professor Ford.

“If your condition is that severe, you need access to blood tests and the acute medical care that being on an inpatient acute paediatric ward gives you, but at the same time you need the therapeutic environment and support that you would get in a mental health ward.

“What Cambridge Children's Hospital will do is provide both in the same place as opposed to children having to be transferred between locations and only being able to access one part of their care that they need at any one time.”

As the first specialist children’s hospital for the East of England, Cambridge Children’s Hospital will care for children, young people and their families from Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Every child will be treated for their mental and physical health, with an additional focus on family wellbeing and support.

Professor Ford said mental health problems in the teenage and emerging adult years can massively impact a young person’s future trajectory in terms of education, health, employment, and social skills. She believes Cambridge Children’s Hospital vision of integrated care will help children and young people recover more quickly.

“What we hope is that treating mental and physical health together – a ‘whole child’ approach - will allow us to get children better quicker and get them back to their homes and back attending school, which again will help their ongoing recovery. Children should be in hospital for the shortest possible time.”

̽��ֱ��report was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and Department of Education, commissioned by NHS England, and carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, the Office for National Statistics and the Universities of Cambridge and Exeter.

Living with an eating disorder

Summer*, who was diagnosed with an eating disorder during her teens, was cared for in the community before being admitted to an inpatient ward. She says being able to have a clinician treat you from your bedside, rather than being transferred to a hospital, could make a huge difference.

“ ̽��ֱ��physical consequences [of eating disorders] can be huge,” said Summer, who grew up in Essex. “Your vital signs can get dangerously low and long term you can get difficulties, like osteoporosis.

“Self-harming can be quite common in some mental health units and the need to leave for treatment somewhere else can be traumatising for the young person being moved and the other patients who might witness it.”

Summer, who says challenges at home as well as pressure from social media contributed to her becoming ill, added: “It can be a shock being admitted as an inpatient, particularly if you feel you're still functioning well in school or work. It can be difficult to recognise how sick you are.”

*Summer’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

Adapted from a news story from the Cambridge Children’s Hospital

One in five children and young people have a probable mental health condition, according to ̽��ֱ��Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2023 report, published today. ̽��ֱ��report also reveals a significant rise in those being diagnosed with eating disorders, including a 10% increase among young men and women aged 17-19.

[It's] not just the result of more children and young people seeking help, it’s a sign of more children and young people needing help

Tamsin Ford

Kate Williams

A woman looking out of a window

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Rate of mental disorders among children remained stable in 2021 after previous rise

cjb250 — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:57:04 +0000

̽��ֱ��report, Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2021, showed that among six to 16 year olds, the proportion with a probable mental disorder remained at one in six (17%) in 2021. Among 17 to 19 year olds, the rate was also one in six (17%).

Figures were statistically similar in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, the rate of probable mental disorders was also one in six for both these age groups.

Both years showed an increase from 2017, when one in nine (12%) six to 16 year olds and one in ten (10%) 17 to 19 year olds had a probable mental disorder.

This report looks at the mental health of children and young people in England in 2021 and how this has changed since 2017 and 2020. Views on family life, education and services and experiences during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have also been collected. ̽��ֱ��findings draw on a sample of 3,667 children and young people aged between six and 23 years old, who were surveyed in 2017 and 2021.

̽��ֱ��survey was carried out earlier this year by the Office for National Statistics, the National Centre for Social Research, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and ̽��ֱ�� of Exeter.

Professor Tamsin Ford, Head of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and one of the study authors, said: “We can be reassured that the mental health of children and young people has not deteriorated further, but this survey suggests there has been no improvement. We need to work hard to prevent further deterioration and to ensure that those who need it have access to effective support.”

This publication reports individual level change in mental health over time for the same group of children and young people. Some change may be due to different rates of mental health conditions being present at different ages. It shows 39% of children now aged six to 16 experienced a deterioration in their mental health between 2017 and 2021, while 22% saw an improvement.

Among young people now aged 17 to 23, 53% experienced a decline in mental health since 2017 and 15% experienced an improvement over that time.

Girls now aged between 11 and 16 were more likely to have experienced a decline in mental health (43%) than boys the same age (34%). This trend was also seen among those now aged 17 to 23, where young women were more likely to have experienced deterioration (61%) than young men (44%).

Other topics covered in the report included eating and sleeping problems, loneliness, social media usage and household circumstances.

Adapted from a press release by NHS Digital.

One in six children in England had a probable mental disorder in 2021 – a similar rate to 2020 but an increase from one in nine in 2017 - according to a survey published today by NHS Digital.

We need to work hard to prevent further deterioration and to ensure that those who need it have access to effective support

Tamsin Ford

Nijwam Swargiary

Teenager

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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One in six children has a probable mental disorder, according to new report

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 12:41:47 +0000

̽��ֱ��rate has risen in boys aged five to 16 from 11.4% in 2017 to 16.7% in July 2020 and in girls from 10.3% to 15.2%3 over the same time period, according to ̽��ֱ��Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2020 report.

̽��ֱ��likelihood of a probable mental disorder increases with age, with a noticeable difference in gender for the older age group (17 to 22 year olds). 27.2% of young women and 13.3% of young men in this age group were identified as having a probable mental disorder in 2020.

This report looks at the mental health of children and young people in England in July 2020, and how this has changed since 2017. Experiences of family life, education and services, and worries and anxieties during the COVID-19 pandemic are also examined. ̽��ֱ��findings draw on a sample of 3,570 children and young people aged between 5 to 22 years old, surveyed in both 2017 and July 20204.

̽��ֱ��report revealed that among girls aged 11 to 16, nearly two-thirds (63.8%) with a probable mental disorder had seen or heard an argument among adults in their household, compared to 46.8% of girls unlikely to have a mental disorder.

Professor Tamsin Ford from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge said: “These findings suggest that more children are struggling with poor mental health than in 2017, particularly those reporting having a difficult time during lockdown – this deterioration in mental health was evident for boys and girls and in all ages from 5 years old to 22.

“ ̽��ֱ��figures of older teenagers and emerging adults, particularly for young women are especially alarming, particularly as they replicate others findings from the UK Longitudinal Survey, which also had pre-pandemic data on the same people.

“All who work with children and families need to be working hard to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, as mental health conditions in childhood predict worse adult health and reduce the ability to learn and achieve at school.”

Sleep problems seemed to be a factor during the pandemic with more than a quarter (28.5%) of 5 to 22 year olds having problems sleeping. Again, those with a probable mental disorder reported experiencing sleep problems (58.9%) more than those unlikely to have a mental disorder (19.0%).

This was more common in girls, with 32.4% reporting sleep problems compared with 24.7% of boys. Issues with sleep affected 17 to 22 year olds (41.0%), more than any other age group.

One in ten (10.1%) children and young people aged 11 to 22 years said that they often or always felt lonely. This was more common in girls (13.8%) than boys (6.5%). Children and young people with a probable mental disorder were about eight times more likely to report feeling lonely often or always (29.4%) than those unlikely to have a mental disorder (3.7%).

When it came to receiving help for mental health problems during the pandemic, 7.4% of all 17 to 22 year olds reported they tried to seek help for mental health problems but didn’t receive the help they needed. This rose to 21.7% of those with a probable mental disorder.

̽��ֱ��report also covers changes in household circumstances during the pandemic. It was revealed that children with a probable mental disorder were more likely to live in a household that had fallen behind with payments (16.3%) during lockdown, than those unlikely to have a mental health disorder (6.4%).

Overall 37.0% of 11 to 16 year olds and 36.4% of 17 to 22 year olds reported that lockdown had made their life a little worse, while 5.9% of 11 to 16 year olds and 6.7% of 17 to 22 year olds said it had made it much worse.

̽��ֱ��report is published by NHS Digital, in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics, the National Centre for Social Research, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the ̽��ֱ�� of Exeter.

Adapted from a press release by NHS Digital

̽��ֱ��proportion of children experiencing a probable mental disorder has increased over the past three years, from one in nine in 2017 to one in six in July this year, according to a report published by NHS Digital and co-authored by Professor Tamsin Ford at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

All who work with children and families need to be working hard to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, as mental health conditions in childhood predict worse adult health and reduce the ability to learn and achieve at school

Tamsin Ford

Warren Wong

Man standing in a subway

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