Young people are being failed by Scotland’s mental health services

Has there ever been a positive sentence that contains both ‘the SNP’ and ‘waiting lists’? New data reveals that under Scotland’s SNP government list lengths for children and young adults’ mental health services have risen this year, leaving just under 8,000 young people in limbo.

Waiting lists nosedived in 2022, going from over 10,000 people long to around 7,500. But the trend hasn’t continued, leaving First Minister Humza Yousaf’s new government with more problems. While 7,701 young people wait for treatment, the number of referrals is rapidly rising. In the last year, over 500 more young people have been referred to mental health services; those from the most deprived parts of the country were disproportionately affected.

Recent weeks have brought a flurry of bad news for the Scottish NHS with reports showing waiting lists had reached record levels and that over 18,000 patients had died