Child in Highland abandoned for more than three years waiting for mental health support
The harrowing wait for the under-18 year old was revealed by a freedom of information request as part of a wider investigation by the Scottish Liberal Democrats into the state of mental health services.
The party has also uncovered that of the children currently waiting to start treatment with NHS Highland, the longest wait this year totalled 448 days. Multiple other patients are also currently waiting over a year for care too.
The latest available data shows NHS Highland still lags behind the rest of Scotland when it comes to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and is facing challenges in meeting national treatment targets.
In the quarter ending December 2024, official figures show only 67.8% of young people in NHS Highland began treatment within the Scottish Government's decade-long target of 18 weeks. This is a decline from 71.5% in the same quarter of 2023 and is notably below the national average of 83.8%.
Dr Kandarp Joshi, the Chair of the CAMHS Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, warned in response to those figures that they “don’t take into the account the waiting times for neurodevelopmental conditions such as Autism or ADHD - which are also on the rise.”
The Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland are calling on the Scottish Government to keep its promise to commit 10% of the total NHS spend towards mental health and 1% for CAMHS.
David Green, the Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Caithness, Sutherland & Ross, said:
“For too many years, an increasing number of children in need across the north have been subjected to harrowing long waits for mental health support. It is heartbreaking to imagine just how hard it must be - it is a national scandal.
"We desperately need to drive down waiting times by installing more counsellors in schools, rolling out more specialists in GP surgeries and A&E departments, and by creating new dedicated specialist mental health beds for children and young people north of Dundee.
“We can do it too - Scottish Liberal Democrats would fund that by increasing the tax paid by the social media giants who cause so much of the problem. Watching more years go past before targets are met simply won’t cut it.”
Andrew Baxter, Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said:
“There is a mental health time bomb in the Highlands, and unless we see real investment in support for our young people now, we will be living with the consequences for decades to come. Early intervention makes all the difference – not just for the young person themselves, but also for families who are too often left to cope with everyday challenges alone, without meaningful support.
“When children are left waiting years for ADHD or Autism assessments, families face painful uncertainty, and schools are given no proper resources to provide the help pupils need. That is simply not good enough – Highland young people deserve better, and we need urgent action from the Scottish Government.”
Neil Alexander, the Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Inverness and Nairn, said:
“I’ve experienced the heartbreaking loss of rugby teammates and friends to suicide. You never stop questioning what more I could have done. But the simple fact is, particularly for young people who experienced social isolation during the pandemic, when it comes to mental health waiting times and lack of support there’s no one left to blame for the Scottish Government.
“No one, young or old, should not have to travel 136 miles from Inverness to Dundee to get specialist support. It’s not on. Improving our mental health services is one of the reasons I got into politics and I won’t stop fighting for it.”
ENDS.
Noted to editors:
You can find a spreadsheet of the results from the Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request here.