The ambition for NW London is that by 2026 we will reduce the number of children and young people presenting in crisis to acute settings by 25%. We will achieve this by:
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In 2022 over 17,400 children and young people (CYP) accessed mental health care in NW London. 383,882 CYP aged between 5 and 17 years are estimated to have a mental health condition, of which it is estimated that 4,349 (11%) have three or more conditions.1
Following a rigorous and robust discovery phase, bringing together insights, experience and expertise from across our health and care ecosystem in a way that has not been done before, we’ve identified the following innovation opportunity areas:
Neurodevelopmental conditions result in high levels of mental health and wellbeing needs for children and young people. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) are the conditions causing most pressure in the system due to a combination of factors, including greater public awareness and demand for services; a mismatch between workforce capacity for specialised assessments and demand; and deterioration in mental health needs whilst waiting for a diagnosis. We will focus on enabling early
equitable access and shrinking waiting times to assessment for ADHD and ASC using data-driven insights and innovations.
Children presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) in crisis might have a variety of conditions: self-harm, mental health issues, learning disabilities and autism, and/or challenging behaviours (with or without a diagnosis). In NW London, ED mental health attendances for 0-17yrs old are now ~60% higher than at the start of the pandemic. There is a strong sentiment among staff that this issue has worsened but a lack of clear and standardised data on CYP in crisis is preventing action. We will focus on preventing CYP in NW London from
experiencing avoidable mental health crises due to inequality, stigma, or inaccessible care, and improving
outcomes for CYP in crisis.
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We’ve spoken to NHS staff, patients and carers to better understand why it’s essential that we implement solutions when it comes to caring for children and young people’s mental health…
Part of the issue is that we’re not very good at treating the whole person. And so there is always a distinction, rightly in some cases, but not in many cases, about the care that’s provided in the mental health sense and the physical health sense. And so, for example, the work that we do around long-term physical health conditions where there are mental health implications attached—like being diagnosed as diabetic at young age, for example—actually weren’t really coordinated very well across the system.
Crisis Care
Neurodevelopmental Conditions
From where we sit in the acute sector, the thing that is devastating is seeing children and young people who have some sort of mental health crisis and the pathway for that feels wholly, wholly unsatisfactory. And sometimes it does work reasonably well, but too often you get kids spending a very long time in the emergency department, largely due to an inability to find an appropriate mental health bed for them.
We’re just not there in terms of actually having a treatment or a support system in place. And so then things trickle down and then we hit the crisis point. But actually our crisis provision is also quite inadequate. And when we look at the broader picture, so think of things like eating disorders as well as self-harming and depressive issues, again, we just haven’t got the systems there to do the early intervention, the family work.
