Berkshire: Waiting list for No5 counselling trebled since 2020

Increasing numbers of young people needing mental health support has been partially blamed on the pandemic and the cost of living crisis

About 1,000 young people are currently waiting for counselling after a charity's wait time more than trebled since 2020.

Berkshire mental health charity No5 said increased awareness, Covid and the cost of living crisis all contributed to increase demand for its services.

Carly Newman from the charity said mental health issues can worsen the longer people have to wait for help.

She said increased funding was needed to address the issue.

No5 offers free, confidential counselling and mental health support to 11-25 year olds across Berkshire West.

The charity currently has nearly 1,000 people waiting for its services - up from 300 in 2020.

"The unfortunate fact is that funding and support hasn't matched that level of awareness-raising," Ms Newman said.

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Richard Hawthorne, a headteacher at John O'Gaunt School in Hungerford, said there was "certainly" an increase in children with mental health issues and "we may be only on the tip of the iceberg" for how the cost of living crisis is affecting it.

He said there was pressure on schools to fix the issue but they did not have the resources to tackle it on the scale needed.

"The issue is that we're not mental health experts," he told BBC Radio Berkshire.

"The role of the school really is to triage the situation and to signpost who out there you need to go and talk to."

Child psychiatrist Dr Angharad Rudkin said she thought "we've done a bit of a disservice to this generation of children" by teaching them to be aware of their feelings but not being able to provide them with help when they need it.

But she said that while the situation is "very difficult", it is not "hopeless" and there is support for young people while they wait for treatment.

"We tend to want to teach and fix," she said. "But all [children] need is someone to listen to them."

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