SMARTPHONES, the Internet and social media are among the reasons behind a spike in the number of referrals to children’s mental health services in Cumbria, an expert claims.

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The county's leading consultant child psychologist Dr Una Parker says growing up in the online age can add an extra complication to the lives of young people that was not experienced 20 to 30 years ago.

Dr Parker, who works for the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provides tier three mental health services for children across the county, made the comments in light of the launch of the Evening Mail’s Healthy Young Minds campaign last month.

The campaign aims to improve access to children’s mental health services for young people in need as well as calling for fairer funding for this growing area of healthcare.

“It’s very different being a teenager now than it was years ago,” Dr Parker said.

“The Internet being part of kid’s lives in this new age of technology does play a part. The evidence is anecdotal, but factors such as cyberbullying can be quite significant.

“For some reason, children don’t feel able to switch off their phones or devices when this is happening, even though that’s what we would advise.

“The advent of social media brings lots of positives for for some young people but there is also the potential for abuse.”

Violent video games, access to inappropriate material online, websites that advocate self harm or disorders such as anorexia are also cited by children’s mental health experts as damaging for children.

Dr Parker, who is also the non-medical clinical lead for the Children and Adolescent's Mental Health Service, added: “There are lots of these websites available to children and they do use them.”

However, social disadvantages are also thought to be indirectly linked to deteriorations in the mental well-being of children - with high unemployment and financial stresses on families contributing to low self esteem and depression.

Referrals to Cumbria’s Children and Adolescent’s Mental Health Service - which provides help for youngsters with moderate to severe emotional or behavioural needs - have shot up over the past five years creating lengthy waiting lists for appointments.

Around 30 per cent of cases sent to the tier three teams at Barrow's Fairfield Centre, are inappropriately referred.

The increase has put the struggling tier three Camhs service under pressure, Dr Parker concedes.

“The rise in referrals is not unique to Cumbria - this is happening nationwide," she said.

“We are constantly working really hard with an increase in referrals and no increase in resources and that has been very difficult.

“No-one is less happy about waiting lists and the inability to see people quickly than the staff.

"Early education about emotional well-being in schools at a very early stage is crucial and we need more tier two provision to help tackle the issue.

"But there is also a system-wide review under way and we are working to introduce a capacity and demand system to the Camhs service, as well as working on getting a better throughput of referrals to help address the problems."