Professor John Robertson OBA
I am, of course, not competent to evaluate the claims of the charity making them in the Herald above but I am, as are all of you, competent to ask why an apparent improvement in performance in the NHS services for them – CAMHS – now for a year, treating more than 90% of those children referred to it (7 500) in one quarter, within the 18 week target, 50% within only 3 weeks1, is now in a crisis mode when it was not in mid-2022 or in the years before?
Where’s the expert, the ‘top medic’ to explain this?
Where also is the discussion of the now widespread comments from medics and the UK Government over ‘over-diagnosis’ in the field, in response to this same issue in the rest of the UK?
See:
Where, also, in a supposedly serious, ‘intelligent‘ newspaper is there awareness of the powerful, now 15 year-old, thesis that it is the underlying culture of a country that more determines the level of mental health diagnoses and not the amount spent on it’s treatment.
From the Spirit Level researchers in 2024:
Inequality is a public mental health crisis. Mental illness is a leading cause of disability worldwide: one-in-two people will experience a mental illness in their lifetime, and one-in-five working-age individuals face a mental health problem at any given moment. Moreover, there is a clear socioeconomic gradient in mental health, where those in lower socioeconomic positions are more susceptible to developing and experiencing a mental health issue.
After 50 years of right-wing economic management, the UK is now one of the most unequal countries on the planet and we pay the price, across a range of negative trends, from crime and drug abuse, to surging mental health diagnosis.
Finally, where is the discussion of the impact of deregulated market economies, dominated by corporate advertising, on the swelling numbers now pathologised and thus needing new drug treatment for new conditions, unknown in the past and in other cultures today, because capitalism inherently needs that growth?3
Sources:
- https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times-quarter-ending-september-2025/
- https://equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/the-spirit-level-at-15/
- https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/capitalism-and-mental-health
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
This article is, probably based on a press release from the charity, Children First.
As the article states, the charity, along with lots of others are preparing for meetings with Scottish Government officers in advance of the Scottish budget early in the new year. It is the annual round of posturing and performative rage from people like Ms Glasgow.
So, we can expect many more of such grossly exaggerated assertions by various charities and other organizations. Already, the Glasgow Film Theatre has told us of the ‘likelihood’ of closing down, unless they get a huge grant.
I am not arguing against such organizations, per se. I am asking that they respect the intelligence of the electorate and the decency of government officials and, yes, politicians in trying to do their best in what, in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, is a zero-sum game, because of the legal requirement to balance the budgets.
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