Waiting times of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS): FOI release

Information requested

You asked for information about children and young people who were on the waiting list for specialist mental health support from CAMHS between the calendar years 2016 and 2019.

1. How many people were on the waiting list? Please provide a breakdown of the length of time it took before they were seen for treatment.
2. How many people were taken off of the list? Please provide a breakdown as to why they were taken off.
3. Please indicate if any people died and how many, while on the (CAMHS) waiting list. Please indicate the youngest three people.

Response

Q1.  Data on waiting times for children and adolescent mental health services are routinely published by Information Services Division (ISD), and are available at https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/. ISD have advised us that data for question 1 would be available from the published tables which show the number of people on the waiting list at month end and number of patients seen and how long they waited to be seen before treatment.

Q2 and Q3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter.

About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.