12 Unit 01 | Healthy and happy Get together in small groups. Plan a ‘Mental Health Day’ for your class and write a programme describing the different events and workshops your class could give. Here are some things you could offer: visualisation techniques positive thinking classes breathing exercises your own ideas Present your programme to the others. Read the text about mental healthcare for young people in the UK, then choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D) for questions 1–7. Put a cross ( ) in the correct box. The first one (0) has been done for you. SPEAKING 13 READING 14 Four in 10 GPs suggest seeking private care for mentally ill children In a survey, 43% of UK family doctors said they told parents whose children were struggling with anxiety, depression, self-harm or eating disorders to seek treatment privately if they could afford it because NHS2 care is heavily limited and involves delays of up to 18 months. The fact that so many families are being directed to private treatment highlights the inability of NHS child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to cope with the growing demand for care from under-18s who have mental ill health. Many GPs who took part in the research, undertaken by the mental health charity Stem4, criticised CAMHS for not being available to see children and young people they referred for care. Some described CAMHS as “dire”, “non-existent” and “totally inadequate”. According to one GP, “Seeing a psychiatrist is more difficult than seeing the Pope.” Dr Nihara Krause, a consultant clinical psychologist and founder of Stem4, said: “Parents want support for their children and young people as soon as possible and so will often stretch themselves financially to pay for treatment. Parental anxiety about the mental health needs of young people is high and recent statistics on, for example, suicide being the primary cause of death in young people adds very real fear.” “Parents whose child has cancer or a serious physical health condition would never have to pay for private care, so why should it be OK for those whose children have mental health problems to be told to do that? This again shows that equality between physical and mental health services is still a far-off goal.” GPs’ advice to go private has prompted concern that it results in a two-tier system in which children from poorer families are denied any care and leaves parents who can pay the fees involved confused as to which private mental health professional is best placed to help.“These findings are a cause for serious concern. Timely access to mental health support is essential. Asking parents to pay for their children to get help will make inequalities that are already very stark even worse,” said Andy Bell, the deputy chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health think tank. Krause said: “From a GP’s perspective it makes sense that they are offering parents something to help with a potential problem. However, it concerns me that so many parents of children and young people are being advised to pay for private care. Some parents are concerned about making the right choice of private specialist since it is confusing to check who is suitably qualified. At the same time, some are also frustrated with the long wait, potential rejection and the level of care they receive from CAMHS.” 2 NHS: (abbr. for) National Health Service: staatlicher Gesundheitsdienst des Vereinigten Königreichs Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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