A Care Quality Commission survey finds that any improvements in mental healthcare in England have been marginal. 

People are waiting too long for mental health care. Four in ten people have said that they are not able to access the care they need when they need it. 

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey of more than 14,000 people who accessed community mental health services found that a third of respondents waited three months or more for their first treatment and 40% said they did not receive any support while they waited.

This is not helping people’s mental health as 42% of people said their mental health deteriorated while waiting for care. While this is a slight reduction from last year (44% in 2023), this still means nearly half of people reported becoming more unwell while waiting for care.

“This report lays bare the devastating reality that people are still not getting the mental health support they need when they need it,” said Jenny Wilkes, CQC’s interim director of mental health at the Care Quality Commission. 

“Workforce issues and underfunding need to be addressed urgently in order to drive the improvements that people with mental health issues need and deserve,” she continued. 

Concerning trends

Of particular concern is that more young people using Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) reported needing support in accessing care than last year. It was up to 30% last year versus 22% in 2023.

The number of young people using CAMHS who reported getting help for their physical needs, however, declined marginally from 32% in 2023 to 26% last year. 

There was also a small decrease of five percentage points of people accessing CAMHS who didn’t know who to contact in a crisis to 33%. Worryingly, more than a third (36%) of young people who did access crisis care said they didn’t get the help they needed and in more than a third (36%) of instances no support was given to their family or carers during the crisis. 

While the report showed concerning trends, there were small improvements in people receiving support to access treatment. Nearly half (44%) of people were asked if they needed support to access care, an increase of 3% from last year, and of those that did need support almost a third (32%) felt the support they received completely met their needs, also an increase of 3% from last year.