Young Mental Health Sufferers Stuck in Hospital Limbo, Study Finds

Young people needing beds urgently for their mental health needs are waiting for long periods on acute general hospital wards, before being placed on wards far from where they live, according to a new study.

The research, which was led by experts from the University of Nottingham, found that more than 40% of young people experienced waits of 7 days or more to be admitted to an adolescent mental health unit, with the majority waiting in acute hospital settings such as pediatric or general medical wards or the emergency department.

The study, which is published in BMJ Mental Health, investigated young people’s admissions to mental health units far away from home to a general adolescent mental health unit either more than 50 miles from home, or in another NHS region, or to an adult mental health ward. It found that more than half of young people admitted at a distance were placed in a mental health unit between 50 and 100 miles from home, with the majority of young people remaining in the same unit throughout their admission. At a six-months follow-up, 20% were still in hospital.

Dr Josephine Holland, from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, was one of the lead authors of the study. She said: “Young people are waiting a long time for a mental health bed, something which those who have assessed them feel they need as a matter of emergency. This forces them to wait in places which are not quite right for a young person experiencing a mental health crisis.”