Question reference: S6W-26182
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 14 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been treated in adult mental health services in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board or any treated outside of Scotland.
Answer
The Mental Welfare Commission (MWC) produces annual reports on admissions of young people under the age of 18 to non-specialist wards in Scotland. Children and young people referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) will generally be treated in the community. There may be times when it is necessary to admit them to hospital for specialist treatment. Should this be the case they would be admitted to one of the three regional CAMHS inpatient units. There are however occasions when a young person is admitted to a non-specialist ward. This may happen for example when it is clinically judged to be more appropriate to admit that young person to a ward, such as an acute care paediatric ward, or the young person and their family have a preference for an admission to a local adult ward.
The latest report was published on 23 October 2023 and can be found at https://www.mwcscot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-11/ChildrenYoungPeople-MonitoringReport2023.pdf . Table 1 provides a breakdown of numbers of young people admitted to non-specialist facilities by year from 2013-14 (202 admissions involving 179 young people) to 2022-23 (79 admissions involving 66 young people). Table 2 provides a breakdown of numbers of young people admitted to non-specialist facilities by NHS board by year. The Scottish Government only holds data on young people treated outside of Scotland from 2014. Since 2014, there have been 21 cross border transfers of CAHMS patients out of Scotland.
Information on young people placed in adult mental health services is also available through the Mental Health Quality Indicator Profile publication: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/23859/2023-11-28-qipmh-full-report-final.pdf . Information can be found under the “Equitable” theme of indicators - indicator EQ4 provides data on the percentage of under 18 year old psychiatric admissions admitted outwith NHS specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) wards. Please note this information is only published at a national level.