A lot of people in this Chamber have personal experience of dealing with mental health problems. I have suffered with mental health problems myself in the past, and I think it's very important that more people come forward to talk about mental health issues, so that we can destigmatise mental health and allow people to come forward to seek the help and support they need.

Young people today have far different issues facing them than those of previous generations. Today's youth live in both the real world and the digital world. They can be influenced and contacted by organisations and businesses that they've never heard of, on social media and online forums, creating, for them, a warped perception of what life is. Many young people are vulnerable and susceptible to being influenced in this way, and if they are sucked down the wrong path, they could struggle to find a way out or seek the help that they need.

I speak with young people regularly. I even consider myself a young person, Deputy Llywydd, so I understand the struggles that many of my generation are going through. There is huge concern by many that they can't earn enough money to meet the standards they think society has for them. Many try to portray that they live a glamorous life on social media in order to impress others on platforms. Sadly, this has become very common, with people only sharing the good times and not wanting to show the bad, while they sit at home suffering in silence. A survey by Mind Cymru found that 75 per cent of young people said their mental health had worsened in the early months of the pandemic. I would say that this is due to the media and political choices and the resulting lockdowns, which saw a huge surge in people's mental health declining.

This led to a growth in people suffering with eating disorders, with support services very nearly being cut off overnight and many left to suffer on their own. We need to ensure that more staff are trained to identify and support children who are suffering with eating disorders. Currently, medical students receive less than two hours of training on eating disorders, and that's over four to six years of undergraduate study. Many young people who need specialist services are removed from their communities, away from their family with no support network. So, we need to explore the possibility of setting up an eating disorder unit here in Wales.

Our schools also play a major role in preventing and dealing with this issue. Schools should be building an emotionally resilient population of young people. Sadly, UNICEF estimates that more than one in seven adolescents aged 10 to 19 live with a diagnosed mental health disorder. If we then add those who are undiagnosed, this is an extremely worrying picture going forward. Our child and adolescent mental health services also play a major role in this area. Sadly, after being the shadow Minister for mental health for over a year now, I've been told by many young people that they have been let down by these services, with too many left waiting for an appointment with nowhere else to turn, and feeling isolated and alone. So, we need urgent reform to CAMHS to make sure that their support is there when they need it.

One of those reforms could be increasing the number of support teams in schools, and I believe, and I know the Deputy Minister believes, that every school should have a dedicated member of staff who deals with mental health within schools, to make sure that they're supported. Another thing that the Deputy Minister and I agree on is utilising the third sector so that the void between referral and appointment is filled, so that that young person gets seen straightaway and is not left waiting to suffer at home.

Filling historic vacancies in specialist CAMHS posts is also an issue that I'm sure everyone is well aware of, and it's one that now needs to be urgently addressed. For the last year, I've been told on a number of occasions that this is a priority, but things are not getting better; they're getting worse. This is an issue too great for politicians to just simply declare that it's a priority yet fail to deliver the resources needed to match the statements. More money has been welcomed and is welcome, but we need to make sure that that money is delivering the outcomes that we want for our young people in Wales.

There are many challenges facing young people in Wales, and, sadly, those challenges will continue to get worse unless politicians in here do more. There are many triggers that can cause detrimental mental health in children and young people, whether it be bullying in school, forms of actually not knowing where you want to be in life, not being able to get appropriate housing, school pressures. It goes on and on, and I could talk about that for hours. We must ensure that appropriate support is available for children and young people, but also take steps to address the triggers that can cause detrimental mental health. So, we need to set up 24-hour crisis services for children and young people right across Wales, so that when they reach out for help that help can be provided. Too many young people are waiting far too long for an appointment and many are getting to a crisis point before anything is done, and this simply cannot continue.

I do look forward to hearing many Members' contributions to this debate today. It's a shame that the Government did their standard—as they do every week—'delete all' to our motion. We will be supporting the Plaid Cymru amendment today. This is not a day to pat the Welsh Government on the back, but to do our jobs in this place, to hold the Government to account and get an urgent review under way into the viability of child and adolescent mental health services here in Wales. It's time to act, and I urge all Members right across this Chamber to support our motion today.