{"id":481595,"date":"2026-06-03T21:50:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/481595\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:50:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:50:39","slug":"mental-health-referrals-for-young-people-hit-record-high-as-one-in-five-now-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/481595\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health referrals for young people hit record high as one in five now ill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some patients waited more than two-and-a-half years – 1,006 days – to be seenNeil Shaw<\/a> Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)<\/p>\n

06:29, 28 May 2026Updated 07:15, 28 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

There has been a rapid surge in mental health problems among young people<\/p>\n

The number of referrals to children and young people\u2019s mental health services hit a record high in March, new figures have shown. The analysis by the charity YoungMinds also showed average waiting times hit record levels.<\/p>\n

The charity said the data highlights the \u201csheer scale of the mental health emergency\u201d facing youngsters. The figures from NHS England show 932,822 people under the age of 18 had an active referral to mental health services in March, which includes 134,837 new referrals.<\/p>\n

Both figures are the highest on record for a single month, YoungMinds said. New referrals were up by 11% on February and 2% from the same time last year. On waiting times, the number of urgent, very urgent and emergency care referrals for young people reached 8,631, up 16% (7,443) compared with the previous month.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The figures have been called ‘alarming’<\/p>\n

The previous highest was 1,284 in June 2025. The analysis also found that the average waiting time topped 300 days for the eighth consecutive month. The average waiting time was 301 days in March, up 13 days when compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n

In the worst cases, patients waited more than two-and-a-half years \u2013 1,006 days \u2013 up by 146 days from the previous year and another record high. Abigail Ampofo, interim chief executive at YoungMinds, said: \u201cThese alarming figures highlight the sheer scale of the mental health emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile waiting lists for the treatment of physical health problems are going down, the time young people are spending trying to access specialist support for their mental health continues to rise. So many pressures are harming young people\u2019s mental health, including academic demands, rising living costs and inequality.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One in five eight to 25-year-olds have mental health problems<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more investment in mental health services, but we also need to tackle these root causes of poor mental health. The announcement that a cross-government mental health strategy is to be developed is welcome but, with a record number of young people being referred for support, we can\u2019t wait until that strategy is in place to turn things around. We need both a long-term plan and urgent action.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is estimated that around one in five eight to 25-year-olds have mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some patients waited more than two-and-a-half years – 1,006 days – to be seenNeil Shaw Assistant Editor (Money…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-481595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}