The number of young children experiencing mental health crises has reached alarming levels, with many turning to accident and emergency departments for help. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has highlighted a significant increase in mental health-related A&E attendances among children aged six to 17, with the sharpest rise among the youngest age group.
This growing trend underscores the urgent need for improved mental health support and early intervention to prevent children from reaching crisis point. The RCPCH has called on the government to prioritize prevention and access to early support to address this escalating issue.
Alarming rise in mental health-related A&E attendances
According to RCPCH analysis of NHS England data, the number of children attending emergency departments with mental health concerns has soared by more than a third in seven years. In 2025, 75,491 children aged six to 17 attended A&E with a recorded mental health concern, up from 55,525 in 2019. This represents a 36% increase in mental health-related A&E attendances among children since 2019.
The rise has been fastest among children aged six to nine, with A&E attendances due to mental health concerns ballooning by 62% among this age group. The number of children staying more than 12 hours in A&E rose from 1,964 in 2019 to 6,235 in 2025, and the number waiting three or more days for appropriate mental health support and a safe place to be discharged rose from 55 to 338.
The RCPCH has warned that A&E departments are not designed to meet the needs of children and young people in a mental health crisis. Dr. Sam Jones, officer for mental health at RCPCH, emphasized that emergency departments are a vital safety net but were never intended to be a place where children in mental health crisis wait for days at a time.
The urgent need for early intervention
The RCPCH has called on the government to use the upcoming Mental Health Strategy to focus on prevention and improved access to early support. Dr. Ronny Cheung, RCPCH officer for health services, stated that the findings must be a wake-up call for the government, highlighting the growing number of children reaching crisis point with their mental health.
Gemma Byrne, from mental health charity Mind, echoed these concerns, stating that A&E can be a frightening environment for anyone in mental health crisis, let alone a child. She emphasized the need for a model of same-day open access mental health support, where anyone who needs help can get quality care straight away.
The Department of Health and Social Care has responded by stating that no child should have to reach crisis point before getting the support they need. They are making it easier to access mental health support in schools and colleges and opening more than 150 new mental health facilities, including community centers offering same-day, walk-in support.
The debate surrounding mental health diagnoses
As demand for children’s mental health services continues to climb, researchers are also asking whether some of the ordinary difficulties of growing up are increasingly being interpreted as medical conditions. The debate has become particularly relevant because of the extraordinary increase in demand for ADHD assessments.
An independent government review into mental health conditions, ADHD, and autism reported that around 21,000 children and young people were waiting for an ADHD assessment through NHS mental health services in April 2019. By December 2025, approximately 270,000 were waiting, almost thirteen times as many. However, the review also found that population surveys suggest the underlying prevalence of ADHD symptoms has been much more stable.
The debate surrounding ADHD and other mental health conditions highlights the difficulty facing parents, teachers, and clinicians in distinguishing between clinically significant impairment and the wide natural variation in children’s behavior and development. The research underscores the need for a more nuanced understanding of mental health and the importance of early intervention to support children in distress.
