This follows on from the Fourth Assembly鈥檚 Children, Young People and Education Committee鈥檚 inquiry, 鈥楻eport into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)鈥 which found that the level of CAMHS provision was not sufficient to meet the needs of children and young people in Wales.
In response to the report on the inquiry into the Emotional and Mental Health of Children and Young People, Dr Shabeena Webster, Welsh Representative on The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health鈥檚 Health Promotion Committee, said:
鈥淭his is an excellent report which we hope Welsh Government will take seriously and adopt many of the recommendations. We鈥檙e particularly pleased with the recommendation to ensure emotional and mental health is fully embedded in the new curriculum - and to make sure that anyone who works with children and young people is trained in emotional and mental health awareness. This is vital for the huge number of children and young people with mental health needs who are not necessarily at crisis point or need direct CAMHs support, but do need support to prevent their problems becoming worse.
鈥淲e very much support the establishment of an overarching body to manage joint working between statutory and third sector organisation to deliver effective and timely mental health support surveys. Workforce shortages also need to be urgently addressed. We are very pleased to see the Committee recommend that Welsh Government ensure health boards work with us to gather accurate workforce data through our workforce census so that they can effectively respond to workforce shortages and design services.
鈥淧oor mental health amongst children and young people needs addressing urgently. We look forward to a timely response from the Welsh Government to put recommendations into action and make real progress in tackling this growing problem.鈥
You can read a copy of the report on .