Failing Our Kids

Day 2 of vital mirror series on UK's mental health. Massive shortfall in resources to help children. 1.5 million youngsters in crisis due Ito pandemic

- Natasha Wynarczyk

WITH his head tucked into his knees and his eyes down, a boy of eight rocks back and forth in the corner of his therapist's office.

Just two years ago the lad would spend almost every evening playing football with his friends.

But he has become so riddled with anxiety that he is harming himself.

He has been biting his cheek so hard it has an inch-wide hole. It will take a long time to heal, and - as young person's therapist Sally Baker has learned - so too will the mental health of the huge number of children who are struggling because of the pandemic.

She says: “Before, he was a happy child with no mental health difficulties.

“But everything he enjoyed, such as being able to play with his friends or go to football, was taken away and he didn't really understand why, so it was as if he was in mourning.

His mum came to see me because he spends hours in the foetal position or rocking back and forth” Sadly, there are many more like him. He is one of an estimated 1.5 million children who charity The Centre for Mental Health believes will need help for things such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder directly because of the pandemic.

This number is three times higher than the current capacity of the UK's mental health services.

New figures given to the Mirror by charity Mind suggest these children's services will need £1.5billion to cope.

This would fund a nationwide rollout of early access walk-in hubs for under-25s, extra staff and more treatment programmes.

The Government is pledging £2.3bn a year by 2023/24 to help two million people across all age groups. It is clear that these provisions are likely to fall far short of what is needed.