analysis of official NHS data suggests that more than half of young people who get psychiatric support finish their course of treatment with no improvement in their health.
Meanwhile, the number of young people who report having poor mental health rose from one in nine to one in five between 2017 and 2023, according to a recent report by the charity Mind. It says that last year only a third of those were able to access treatment.
Mia’s mother, Christina, first sought help for her daughter when she was five years old and had developed an exact ritual for each morning, getting dressed in a particular order and spending up to two hours in the bathroom.
Within months, Mia was told she had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). But they felt the diagnosis was wrong, and life didn’t get any easier.
“When you’re a seven-year-old child and you can’t properly understand why you feel so different and so isolated, it’s obviously going to impact you growing up,” Mia recalls.
“There’s never truly [been] anywhere that I feel I belong.”
Mia and her mother became convinced she was on the autism spectrum and Christina pushed for an assessment at the local children’s mental health service in Islington, north London.
On two separate occasions, Mia didn’t score highly enough in initial screenings to trigger a formal assessment.
Her mother believes the test was geared towards diagnosing boys, which the service provider says it has now improved in line with increased understanding nationally of how autism presents itself in girls.
As Mia struggled on, finding it difficult to make friends, Christina approached her primary school’s special educational needs teacher, her local social work department and mental health services, desperate for support.
“I was ignored and made to feel like a neurotic mum – nobody was listening,” Christina says.
“I felt they didn’t understand her needs. I don’t think they knew how to support her.”
