Heads Calling 999 Over Mental Health Analysis

Children’s Mental Healthcare in the United Kingdom The article, “Heads 'calling 999 over mental health'”, by Hannah Richardson of BBC news, exposes the lack of mental health care for school age children. Ms. Richardson explains, there is an increase of children having a mental health crisis in schools. In fact, teachers are having to call law enforcement or ambulances to get these children help. It is problematic for the schools when access and funding for services are not in place. Particularly, when the government asks the schools to pay because there is no funding available. I was very interested in this article because I was curious to see if other countries had the same problem with their mental health systems. Ms. Richardson’s article clearly shows that the same issues plaguing the mental health system in the United States are happening in other countries. The article illustrates how deficient care is for children in need of acute care. For instance, in the United Kingdom treatment is not ready available, even for those who pose a risk of harm to self or others. Similarly, the United States, has long wait times for treatment, lack of funding and gaps in care.

In fact, the most vulnerable populations throughout the world, are the ones who suffer the most from the fragmented system. Teachers, law enforcement, and the criminal justice system is overwhelmed with handling the mental health problems here and in the United Kingdom. Teachers, police officers and prison officials are not mental health counselors and should not be the ones advocating for services. To emphasize, mental health treatment should already be in place for school