More than 500 children a day in England are being referred to NHS mental health services for anxiety, more than double the rate before the pandemic began. The Guardian has the story.
In 2023-24 there were 204,526 new referrals of patients aged 17 or under where the primary cause was anxiety, official figures show. In 2019-20, the year before COVID-19 struck, the total was 98,953. In 2016-17 it was 3,879.
The alarming increase means children are now being referred to NHS mental health services in England for anxiety at a rate of one every three minutes or almost 4,000 a week.
Doctors, NHS officials and health leaders said in interviews that the surge in anxiety referrals was “staggering” and “shocking” and laid bare an urgent need to tackle the crisis in children’s mental health.
Officials said the rise in demand for care was straining the capacity of the health service to provide timely treatment for anxiety, with thousands of children on “unacceptably long” waiting lists. Delays to treatment risked causing further harm at a crucial stage of their development, they said.
A Guardian investigation can also disclose that mental health leaders fear the figures may only be the tip of the iceberg because many children are not seeking help or are unable to do so, despite increasing awareness. …
Experts said the pandemic [i.e., lockdowns] had caused “significant disruption” to children’s lives and amplified all the other pressures they already faced. More than four years after Covid first hit, many children remain uncertain about the world around them and anxious about their future, the experts said.
Worth reading in full.
Notice that in Left-wing outlets it’s always the “pandemic” or “Covid” that’s to blame, never lockdowns – even though the virus didn’t closes any schools or confine the population to their homes. The Government did that. It wasn’t “the virus” that “disrupted” children’s lives. It was the extreme (and ineffective) response.
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I remember seeing this Romanian MEP with a handful of others denouncing the covid lunacy when it was in full swing and drawing hope from their actions.
And then I saw the zero impact it had and my eyes opened even wider to the total farce that is our system, the EU and the joke we call democracy in the west.
It works if rulers act with restraint, but when they don’t and they bulldoze over everything and everyone to impose their own policies you realise our freedom and democracy is in the gift of our rulers.
It’d nice that this MEP denounces what many of us see, but in terms of effect, it could be him, me or Bugs Bumny saying it. It will move the dial exactly zero degrees.
Pessimist!
Realist
I’m still glad he is saying it – someone has to, and he has the guts to do it. I believe it is having an effect because it can’t only be here that Terhes and his group are re tweeted and cited.
Thank God for his like.
Let them. All good people with rational things to say and who have a desire for freedom speak face-to-face anyway. The control freaks are unwittingly forcing the creation of the alternative world they so fear.
Optimist!
Being optimistic is exactly what they don’t want us to be. Love always wins. Value and encourage individual interactions. It’s the only way to beat the Borg.
That’s why they closed the pubs down during the Covid lunacy. They couldn’t possibly have people discussing the lunacy and concluding that it was unjustified and completely moronic.
Yes..it’s truly Orwellian, Well I’m not joining in, neither should you, and if enough of us don’t it won’t work……how are they going to ban, or correct, or stop millions of us?
They can say anything they fricken want..it doesn’t make it true or feasible…just like I’m never having the jag, and I’m never eating ze bugs!!!?
I’m aware that in my lifetime that real fascism and communism has been overturned..and I suspect it’s just the little things..the people who just don’t go along..
the little acts of rebellion…and at least now we also have more ways to communicate than ever before no matter how hard they try to stop it….…some other ‘platform’ will pop-up….
…it really bothers them, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to stop it if it didn’t…
David and Goliath
David won that battle I recall.
Controlling information through intimidation and explicit controls saps government credibility and makes rumors spread more readily, thus creating ever more work for busy censors. Media Control in China, He Qinglian.
He Qinglian’s censorial officedates back to Tang times.
The Chief Censor is responsible for making Chinese media a consistently reliable source of information so, in case of an epidemic or a war, everyone can trust what they’re being told.
Chinese media provided consistently reliable Covid information so everyone followed it and only 80,000 of them died – even though only 7% of them were ever locked down. They also kept the economy turning over nicely during the drama: GDP grew 14% in those three years.
With no trustworthy information sources, we Wessies split up, got lost in thickets of misinformation, and 1.2 million didn’t make it.
Friends fall down laughing when I tell them that the current dynasty has never lied nor failed to keep a promise (though so far none has claimed the prize of $100/occurrence).
Here’s a funny thing: when I tell Chinese friends that I’ve never found the government lying or welching on a promise they look at me oddly.
Eventually they say something like, “But, um, why would the government lie to us? What do they have to gain? What’s the point?”.
It’s a different world. We must destroy it without delay.
“In 2023, Canadians reported an all-time low trust level of 40%.
Additionally, trust in English speaking Canada was much lower (37%) than in French Canada (49%).
Additionally, the report found that attitudes towards publicly-funded outlets like the CBC “are more negative.” ”
True North report
The don’t care about disinformation. They want to stop unapproved information.
You cannot take the Fascist and Communist tendencies out of the EU “Elite.” They know nothing else. It’s what and who they are.
Yes spawned from Nazi Germany
“Cristian Terhes, a Romanian MP and Member of the European Parliament,” At least one member has a modicum of common sense. That’s one more than I thought possible!
Unless people on mass say this. ——“I have an education and I own a dictionary and I will choose my own words and thoughts”, then freedom is gone, if it isn’t already. ———–I want a million people to stand with that placard in their hands outside every government building in Europe. We need to STOP this tyranny now or it is the Fourth Reich.
If there is some infallible person or people making the decisions about what is the ‘truth’, please refer me to them.
I would like to meet them.