A major national study of over 11,000 Year 13 students (aged 17-18) has found that a quarter have sought some form of mental health support over the previous 12 months, yet many are struggling to access that support. Of those who sought help, 35% said they were either on a waiting list or had otherwise yet to receive it.
Importantly, the research reveals that young people in the most deprived parts of the country are 11 percentage points more likely to say they are still waiting or have not received the support they applied for, at 39% compared to 28% of those in the most affluent areas.
The disparities in access to specialist mental health support services, such as NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), were even more stark. Young people living in the poorest areas were more than twice as likely to have not received support as the most affluent pupils – 39% in deprived areas had not received or were still waiting for support, compared to just 18% in more affluent areas.
Overall, the study shows that 44% of Year 13s could be classified as experiencing high psychological distress between November 2022 and April 2023, the same proportion as in the previous COSMO study last year (October 2021-April 2022) and considerably higher than 35% in 2017 and 23% in 2007 in studies of similar age groups. This underscores the alarming trend that the mental health of the current generation is worse than that of previous generations.
