Manchester mental health workers turned frown lines into picket lines
After years of Tory and Labour governments slashing funding and selling off the NHS wholesale, children’s health is in a sorry state.
A new report, by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, shows how services fail children and parents at every stage of the process.
Parents are forced to make unnecessary trips to accident and emergency departments instead of receiving consistent care. When they get to A&E, children are left waiting in chaotic and understaffed environments.
And there is a mounting crisis in children’s mental health services.
Some 20 percent of young people experience mental health problems, but only a third are able to access care. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) saw a staggering 53 percent increase in demand between 2020 and 2024.
CAMHS worker Mica told Socialist Worker, “You can feel really hopeless when you’re with patients. You’re left in a position where all you can do is say ‘I hear what you’re saying, I know you’re in crisis but these are the only options.’
“We can only offer that they sit on this waiting list for counselling or a specific therapy for months.
“A lot of the time you’re ‘holding a patient’—seeing them because they’re in crisis, while they wait for the necessary treatment. You can feel really despondent, that you’re not giving them the care that they need.”
Often in these scenarios, workers are pressured to offer medication. Mica explained, “A lot of the time this is ADHD medication. Often we’re giving children from more deprived backgrounds, black or brown kids, who are labelled as naughty, medication.
“Sometimes it’s the schools that push for medication. Teachers say they don’t want the kid in their class unless they’re medicated.”
Pressure from the bosses takes a toll on health workers’ mental health too. “You’re highly scrutinised about the work you’re doing and not doing.”
Children interviewed in the report said they wish the staff were “less stressed”.
Mica said, “Schools being under immense pressure and having to cut all special educational needs and disabilities (Send) resources, puts a huge amount of pressure on CAMHS.
We’re treating people who don’t need our services, but have learning disabilities, because the services they need are being cut.”
Privatisation is another massive issue. Mica explained that testing for ADHD and autism is outsourced to a private provider that does the tests online and doesn’t communicate properly with CAMHS.
The horrors of the political system also contribute. Mica said, “The fact that we as a country aren’t recognising that there’s a livestreamed genocide on our screens is going to affect everybody’s mental health.
“For young people to see that and to not just not have a space to talk about it, but for it to be denied that it’s even happening, is causing unbelievable harm and anger.”
The government should invest in welfare, not warfare. But Mica also thinks “we need a broader understanding of these things.
“We need more people on the picket lines, who understand working class consciousness and their power. Then we can shift the worry lines onto the picket lines.”
Staff shortages and chronic under-investment mean that some 60,000 cancer patients in England are “not getting necessary radiotherapy.” And some patients face waits of up to six months to begin treatment.
Those are some of the shocking conclusions of a study by the charity Radiotherapy UK, published last week.
The situation is so dire that nearly 100 heads of radiotherapy and oncology warned in an open letter that the government is failing patients.
Experts agree that more than half of all cancer patients will need radiotherapy. But NHS England data shows that only 35 percent receive it.
That leaves 60,455 patients a year without any radiotherapy at all.
Currently only 39 percent of patients begin radiotherapy within 62 days of referral, less than half the national target of 85 percent.
Staff shortages are a key reason behind the delays.
Health workers report that radiotherapy machines are sitting idle in a number of NHS Trusts, or unable to be used at weekends, because there are too few trained staff to operate them.
One head of radiotherapy from a large trust in the east of England said the “devastating reality” was that the workforce was at breaking point.
“After 35 years in the radiotherapy profession, I can say with certainty that the situation we face today is the worst I’ve ever seen,” they said.
“Across the country, radiotherapy treatment machines sit idle. Not just because of technical faults, but because there simply aren’t enough staff to run them.”
The shortage of radiology doctors and other skilled workers is a crucial reason why unions are right to fight for better pay.
Yuri Prasad
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