NEW figures have revealed the number of young people referred to mental health services in north Cumbria increased by 60 per cent in the last year.

NHS digital data shows that in 2019-20, 3,570 under-18s were referred to mental health services across NHS North Cumbria CCG - a 63% increase on the previous year,

NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group said the increase reflected the difficulties posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2019, mental health services in the area were transferred to Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW).

A spokesperson for NHS North Cumbria CCG said: “The report from the Children’s Commissioner reflects the improvements we are seeing in our children’s NHS mental health services since Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust took over services in October 2019.

"It shows increased investment and an improvement in the responsiveness of our CAMHS services.

“The increase in young people seeking mental health support reflects a national increase in young people recognising they need support and the extraordinary times in which we are living and the impact this has on our young people.

"It’s important to remember that not all young people who need mental health support need medical treatment, which is why we work closely with our local authority and other commissioners and providers of support for young people.

“We are also investing in services working with schools, with staff currently undergoing training.

“Young people aged 11-18 can access the free Kooth service, 24 hours a day. This has been more important as it means young people can access advice and support remotely while we live in lockdown restrictions and access to their usual support at school is not as easily available.

"Kooth is an online mental wellbeing community with free, safe and anonymous support. You can access it at www.kooth.com.”

“Children and young people who need more support can contact MyTime, part of CAMHS provided in partnership with Barnardo’s Cumbria, which can provide various types of counselling and therapies. You can find out more at https://www.barnardos.org.uk/what-we-do/services/mytime-cumbria”

David Muir, Group Director for Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), said: “We monitor our referrals closely and our teams work hard to maintain access for those who need to reach our services.

"Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic all of our services have remained open to support those who need us.

"Nationally, we know that referrals to CAMHS services have been increasing over the past few years, and we are continually reviewing our services and how we work to support this.

“Since these services were transferred to CNTW in October 2019 we have introduced new ways of working, training and enhanced multi-agency working and communication to ensure that children and young people are seen quickly and appropriately according to clinical need.

“We continually strive for improvements to the service we provide to young people, and are pleased that this is reflected in the reductions in waiting times for services, which we continue working to reduce further to ensure that children and young people can reach our services quickly.

“Other ways our service has adapted include increasing use of online sessions and video-calls, for those young people who prefer this way of communicating.

"We also continue to work directly with young people in our area to listen to how we can improve our services for them, engaging with groups such as the ‘WE WILL’ campaign, a group of young people based in Maryport.”