THE number of mental health referrals for children at Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CPNFT) has soared by 157 per cent in the last five years, a new investigation has found.

Data obtained by Medical Negligence Assist via Freedom of Information Requests to all NHS Mental Health Trusts reveals that in the last year alone, the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust received 11,612 referrals - up from 4,512 in 2019.

Anxiety, Self-harm, Eating Disorders, Depression and Neurodevelopmental conditions were the most common referral reasons in the last year.

Referrals for children experiencing ‘Post-traumatic stress disorder’ saw the biggest increase from 20 referrals in 2019 to 156 in 2023/24 — that’s a rise of 680 per cent.

Diagnosed Autism referrals skyrocketed by 618 per cent from 17 in 2019/20 to 122 in 2023.

Mental health referrals for children with anxiety at CPNFT has increased by 217 per cent in the last five years from 610 in 2019 to 1,932 in the last year.

The increase reflects the wider national picture, with NHS statistics showing more than 500 children a day in England are being referred to mental health services for anxiety.

The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza said she was ‘horrified’ by the national figures.

In a statement in September this year, she said: “I was horrified to see the latest NHS Statistics… For children and young people, each year is a significant portion of their young lives, so we need a fresh approach that intervenes much earlier to prevent children from reaching crisis point.”

Eating Disorders were also among the top reasons for children’s mental health referrals in Cornwall with 589 in the last year — rising by 50 per cent in the last five years.

Published NHS Figures show a large and recent increase in the numbers of hospital admissions for young people due to eating disorders. Of the 24,300 hospital admissions (up from 13,200 in 2015/16) for those with eating disorders in 2020-21, almost half were under the age of 25 (11,700).

The most common referral reason for children at CPNFT this year however, was for neurodevelopmental conditions (excluding autism) — these can include learning or intellectual disabilities.

In the last year, 2023/24, CPNFT received 2,236 such referrals — up from 769 in 2019/20, an increase of 191 per cent.

There were also more referrals for childhood depression in the past five years at the Cornwall Trust — which saw a dramatic spike in cases in 2020/21 — a year after the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Figures leapt from 902 in 2019/20 to a staggering 2,109 the following year — marking the biggest increase out of any other mental health referral reason in the past five years.

The growing mental health crisis among children in the UK has been linked to a number of factors including the effects of the pandemic, rising poverty levels and the influence of social media and cyberbullying.

Andy Bell, the chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health charity, said: “Our research indicates that academic pressures, particularly those related to exams, have intensified in the last decade. Rising levels of poverty and inequality have also contributed to increased anxiety among children and young people, including factors such as financial stress within households and the impact of racism. Evidence also suggests that online harms, such as cyberbullying and pressures around appearance, are relentless and can fuel anxiety in children.”

Earlier this year, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network, said the demand for children and young people’s (CYP) mental health services is greater than ever.

Sean Duggen said: “The numbers with a probable mental disorder have increased markedly since 2017, as have contacts with NHS mental health services with the unfortunate knock-on impact that too many are waiting months if not years to access support.

“While services are seeing far more children and young people, the increase in prevalence, demand, complexity and severity of need means that services are often struggling to meet that demand.

“And this is having a knock-on impact on other parts of the NHS, including general practice, paediatric services, emergency services, the voluntary sector, schools and local authority services.

“Services, such as GPs, referring into specialist NHS CYP mental health services are often frustrated by the long waiting lists and the fact that their referrals are not accepted because of the scale of the demand.”

This year at Cornwall NHS Trust, 4,693 children have received treatment for mental health — that’s 74 per cent of those referred, well above the national average of 32 per cent.

The average waiting time from referral to first appointment was three weeks, again a significant improvement on the national average of five weeks.

However, the trust did confirm a reported maximum waiting time of 352 days between April 2023 and April 2024.