Tag: anxiety

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Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Scotland hit 90% or more target for 8th time in a row with NHS England lagging badly at only 65%*

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times Quarter ending June 2026 Published01 September 2026 (Latest release), the above and: 90.9% of people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is a decrease from 91.2% for the previous quarter and a decrease from 91.8% for the same quarter ending June 2025. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS. The chart below shows performance in relation to this … Continue reading Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Scotland hit 90% or more target for 8th time in a row with NHS England lagging badly at only 65%*

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NHS England plans further cuts to mental health care for children to further widen the gap with ‘substantially’ better NHS Scotland but no media report it

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From the Guardian today, the above, and: Millions of adults and children in England face being forced to wait longer for mental health care, with more than two-thirds of NHS providers planning to cut services and half expected to axe jobs, the Guardian can reveal. With mental health services already under extraordinary pressure amid soaring demand for support, experts warned the proposed cuts – drawn up by trusts to plug holes in their finances – would also have “significant” consequences for the wider NHS, the economy and public services. Key services such as child and adolescent mental health care, talking therapies, addiction support, … Continue reading NHS England plans further cuts to mental health care for children to further widen the gap with ‘substantially’ better NHS Scotland but no media report it

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Research reveals increasing mental health referrals among children may be more due to a greater readiness to come forward and to coding changes than to an actual increase in depression and anxiety and casts Daily Record reporting as ill-informed and exploitative

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The dominant narrative across the media operating in Scotland, the opposition parties and a few parents groomed by them, is, as in the Daily Record headline above, on 20 April 2026. Often ignored are these facts: From Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times Quarter ending March 2026 published today, the above graph showing the 90% target beaten for 6 quarters (3 months) in a row, and: 91.2% of people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 90.0% for the previous quarter. 3,858 people started treatment in CAMHS. This is an increase of 2.4% (91) from the 3,767 starting … Continue reading Research reveals increasing mental health referrals among children may be more due to a greater readiness to come forward and to coding changes than to an actual increase in depression and anxiety and casts Daily Record reporting as ill-informed and exploitative

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Dare to be different on smart phones, Scotland – since they were first introduced – teenage sex, pregnancy rates, crime, violence, alcohol and drugs all down!

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21 years ago I read the above book by Steven Johnson so it was with delight that I received an email today from ‘scunhur’ making the case for smart phones making you smart, By ‘scunhur’: Imagine these Scottish news headlines: It’s all true (well…see 6.): The main point about each of 1-5 above is that the reduction in harmful behaviour started just as teenagers adopted smartphones from 2005 onwards, culminating in the introduction of the first iPhone in mid (USA) to late (Europe) 2007. There are numerous online references to this phenomenon, all being ignored by those who wish to … Continue reading Dare to be different on smart phones, Scotland – since they were first introduced – teenage sex, pregnancy rates, crime, violence, alcohol and drugs all down!

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As NHS Scotland hits treatment targets for a year, what is the cause of a ‘child mental health emergency?’

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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 … Continue reading As NHS Scotland hits treatment targets for a year, what is the cause of a ‘child mental health emergency?’

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Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults – Scotland leads in and other countries could benefit from dedicated, accessible funding for preventative community work

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Professor John Robertson OBA From the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults – Year 4 – Monitoring and reporting summary published today: Key Findings – Reach of Funded Projects: Number of awards: 1,462 grants have been awarded in Year 4 which has resulted in funding for 1,446 organisations. This means 6,192 awards have been made across the first four years of the Fund. Balance of new and existing projects: Of the project data returned, 41% were new projects, 56% were existing projects, and data was not available for 3% of projects. Small grants: Overall, most grants (56%) were for £10,000 or … Continue reading Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults – Scotland leads in and other countries could benefit from dedicated, accessible funding for preventative community work

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Why don’t BBC Scotland want to tell you about Scotland’s first walk-in mental health hubs?

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA From STV, yesterday, the above and: Scotland’s largest mental health charity has unveiled plans for a £10m network of walk-in support centres. I searched for – ‘BBC Scotland first walk-in mental health hub‘ and got the same STV report, the Daily Record, the Herald, the Glasgow Times and even the Rangers Charity Foundation covering it. The reports are not actually that SNP-friendly but BBC Scotland? Just this: What’s going wrong with our mental health? Martin Geissler and Laura Miller ask why so … Continue reading Why don’t BBC Scotland want to tell you about Scotland’s first walk-in mental health hubs?

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Mental health services – 18% improvement in one year as almost 90% of children and adolescents now treated within target

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland today is headlining their own Disclosure team’s interviews with teenagers from one Glasgow unit. It sounds tragic. While taking nothing away from the unacceptability of the treatment reported, BBC Scotland also has a responsibility beyond that, to inform the public of the wider context so that one negative report does not, unfairly, come to represent reality for their audience. The latest figures, from Public Health Scotland, tell another important and different story: For the quarter ending September 2024: 89.1% of children and young people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is an … Continue reading Mental health services – 18% improvement in one year as almost 90% of children and adolescents now treated within target

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Three England-only research reports do not prove that eating disorder treatment in Scotland is underfunded especially when NHS Scotland can treat 84 cases from England

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to https://bsky.app/profile/keepinfairlieweird.bsky.social for alerting me to this. From BBC Health today: Lives are being lost and families torn apart because of “woefully inadequate care” for people with eating disorders, according to a group of MPs. The “alarming” rise in disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, over the past decade, has now become an “emergency”, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders says in a report. The report refers to figures showing a growing number of people affected: The report says services are “grossly” underfunded, there are barriers to accessing treatment and wide variations in care quality … Continue reading Three England-only research reports do not prove that eating disorder treatment in Scotland is underfunded especially when NHS Scotland can treat 84 cases from England

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20 peer-reviewed and published research studies find that NORMAL operation of reactors causes ‘cancers chromosomal aberrations, birth defects and miscarriages, and mental retardation after in utero exposure’ and Scottish Labour will risk more of that

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In an extensive review of research over the last 30 years, published in 2016 in the International Journal of Environmental Research into Public Health, Dean Kyne (University of Texas) and Bob Bolin (Arizona State University) identified 20 reports confirming that normal operation, as opposed to during accidents like that at Chernobyl, causes cancer especially after exposure before birth and in very young children. They write: Evidence suggests that individuals living near the nuclear power plants face difficult-to-avoid health risks associated with exposure to low level routine radioactive effluents emitted from plants. Given that no level of radiation exposure is considered … Continue reading 20 peer-reviewed and published research studies find that NORMAL operation of reactors causes ‘cancers chromosomal aberrations, birth defects and miscarriages, and mental retardation after in utero exposure’ and Scottish Labour will risk more of that