9. Short Debate: 'Listen to us. Support us.': The need to ensure access for young people to mental health support

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:06 pm on 3 November 2021.

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Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 6:06, 3 November 2021

We have to be prepared as parliamentarians to listen, always, and we want to listen. That's why we're here. And we need to look for ways of giving people a voice, and my hope with this appeal for young people to share their personal experience is that we can reach out to some who perhaps haven't had their say before. I want young people to share their experience particularly about how easy or difficult they have found it to access help with their mental health—early help, timely support. My experience of speaking to young people suggests that there's a lack of signposting, perhaps, a lack of encouragement to seek that early support and to help to understand that early intervention is so important. When problems are allowed to grow, then it is more likely that there has to be more intensive intervention. Look at the waiting times for specialist child and mental health service support—the latest figures, I think, from Welsh Government show that waiting times for specialist CAMHS services are at a new high, with over 70 per cent of referrals waiting more than four weeks for their first appointment.