Holyrood<\/a> on Tuesday as she called for whole-family support to be strengthened.\n<\/p>\n\n In an exclusive interview with The Herald, she said: \u201cWe cannot CAMHS or diagnose our way out of this challenge that we\u2019ve got where children and young people are coping with increasing levels of anxiety and distress. We\u2019ve got to find a different way of doing it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe need to move to a much more preventative, relationship-based and community-based model. CAMHS is not for everybody and it is not required for everybody.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen the system is so overloaded because it is the only option, those children who do need that response cannot get to it quick enough.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Children First has supported children who are in some cases suicidal and warned these cases could be avoided with early intervention.\n<\/p>\n
\n She urged the Scottish Government to \u201cfill the gap\u201d between universal services and acute services, including CAMHS.\n<\/p>\n
\n That means placing more resources with communities to tackle prevention on the issues that cause increased anxiety in children.\n<\/p>\n
\n It could also see family support workers placed within GP clinics, and round-the-clock phone and online support for mental health services, cutting out the need for referrals and lengthy waits.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Glasgow added: \u201cWe have a childhood emergency. We have to think about what part does the pressure that children are exposed to on social media cause?\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhat are the pressures that are around family relationships that mean sometimes it\u2019s hard to keep good communication channels open? How do we support children where there is some neurodivergence or specific issues in a way that does not necessarily in involve them being clinically diagnosed as a problem?\n<\/p>\n
\n Read more:\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are never going to have enough resources within CAMHS to be able to tackle that problem. We want to see funding pulled down straight into prevention, solid and strong investment to fill the gap with whole-family support.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Nearly 300,000 \u2013 43% – children in Scotland are classed as having an additional support need (ASN), up 2.5 percentage points from last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n In Scotland, ASN is a broad term for any child needing extra support and can include learning, health or disability barriers, but also covers family issues and formal diagnosis is not required.\n<\/p>\n
\n The charity boss told The Herald it is a \u201creally big problem\u201d that is only going to worsen because of the lack of alternative approaches to CAMHS.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe know that if nothing happens once a child presents at a GP or school with distress and anxiety, if all they are offered is a long waiting list before they are seen, within that period, things just get worse.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBy the time they do get that CAMHS appointment, they end up getting caught up in a system where 18 months before they might not have needed it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The latest figures published by Public Health Scotland, covering July to September this year, showed there were 7,521 referrals to CAMHS, with 2,587 rejected, while 3,597 began treatment.\n<\/p>\n
\n At the end of September, 4,006 children were on a waiting list to start treatment with the service.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Scottish Government said 91.5% of children and young people started treatment within the 18-week referral target in the quarter ending September 2025.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman for the government said: \u201cIt is vital that all children and young people receive the right support, at the right time. CAMHS is a specialist service so it is right that clinicians assess referrals and decide whether a child or young person should be accepted, or if they should instead be sensitively signposted to the right help, including community-based services.\n<\/p>\n
\n “As with any other specialist service, there will always be a level of referrals to CAMHS that are not accepted.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cFor the third quarter in a row, national performance against the CAMHS waiting times standard has been met, with 91.8% of children and young people referred being seen within 18 weeks. This is thanks to this government\u2019s investment and the hard work of Health and Social Care staff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A record number of children referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Scotland were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-357874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}