A significant proportion of people who access community mental health support have faced major delays, a new survey from the CQC has revealed.
The survey of 14,000 people found four in 10 (40%) felt they had waited ‘too long’ for care.
A third of people (33%) had waited three or more months for their first community mental health treatment and of those, four in 10 said they did not receive any support while they waited for the appropriate treatment.
As a result, 42% of people said their mental health worsened while waiting for care.
The CQC warned people were unable to receive the timely care they need and pointed to significant workforce issues.
Its new report, published today, highlighted the vacancy rate across the mental health sector being at 9.9%, with over 10,000 empty mental health nursing posts.
Survey findings also revealed one in 10 (10%) patients said they were not treated with dignity or respect when accessing mental health support.
And three-quarters (77%) said they were not signposted to help or advice with the cost of living, ‘even though this can be a significant driver of mental health issues’, the CQC said.
The survey also showed a rise in young people using Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) needing support in accessing care, with 30% requiring support with this compared to 22% in 2023.
Concerningly, more than a third (36%) of young people who did access crisis care said they did not get the help they needed and in more than a third (36%) of instances no support was given to their family or carers during the crisis.
However, the report found that the majority (87%) of young people using CAMHS felt involved, to some extent, in their care planning.
Interim director of mental health at the CQC, Jenny Wilkes, said: ‘This report lays bare the devastating reality that people are still not getting the mental health support they need, when they need it.’
She added: ‘Workforce issues and underfunding need to be addressed urgently in order to drive the improvements that people with mental health issues need and deserve.’
It comes as last week, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting admitted to Parliament that the proportion of the NHS budget spent on mental health is being cut.
He has also stated that he thinks mental health conditions are overdiagnosed – which primary care minister Stephen Kinnock echoed at the Pulse LIVE conference last month, while announcing a crackdown on private sector therapists.
A version of this article was first published by Pulse’s sister title Nursing in Practice
