The Hidden Crisis: UK Young People’s Mental Health Gets Worse

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

As we reach the middle of 2025, we’re seeing big problems in how children and young people in the United Kingdom are feeling mentally and emotionally.

The world has faced many challenges, including COVID-19, which has seriously affected how an entire generation of young people think and feel.

Recent studies show that many young people are struggling with mental health problems like never before. This has made doctors, teachers, and government officials call for quick action to help.

As of 2023, approximately one in five children and young people aged 8 to 25 in England had a probable mental disorder.

The Scary Numbers

New information from the NHS (National Health Service) in England shows a troubling pattern that started during the pandemic.

In 2023, about one in five young people between ages 8 and 25 in England likely had mental health problems.

This means about 20.3% of 8 to 16-year-olds and 23.3% of 17 to 19-year-olds were struggling. These numbers have gotten much worse since 2017, when only one in nine young people had these problems. The pattern keeps getting worse.

The situation looks even more serious when we look at different age groups.

Young women between 16 and 24 years old face the highest risk, with 28.2% having common mental health problems.

We see this pattern of young women being affected more often across many different types of mental health issues. This suggests we need special programmes to help young women. This does not mean the men should be left behind.

Eating disorders have risen dramatically, especially among young people. In 2023, 12.5% of 17 to 19-year-olds had an eating disorder, compared to just 0.8% in 2017

The Rise in Eating Disorders

One of the most worrying changes has been the big increase in eating disorders among young people.

In 2023, 12.5% of 17 to 19-year-olds had an eating disorder.

This is a huge jump from 2017, when only 0.8% had these problems. The increase has been especially big among young women in this age group, going from 1.6% to 20.8% between 2017 and 2023.

This problem isn’t just affecting older teenagers.

The study found that 2.6% of 11 to 16-year-olds had eating disorders in 2023, compared to 0.5% in 2017.

Girls (4.3%) were four times more likely than boys (1.0%) to have these problems.

These numbers show we urgently need special help for eating disorders for different ages and genders.

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Is there a Mental Health Crisis in the UK?

The answer is Yes because the numbers are growing.

The UK is facing a serious mental health crisis. Here’s what that means in simple terms:

  • More people are struggling with mental health problems than ever before. About 1 in 4 adults in England had a mental health issue in 2023.
  • Young people are being hit hard. In 2023, about 1 in 5 children aged 8 to 16 had a mental health problem. This is a big jump from just a few years ago.
  • Eating disorders are becoming much more common, especially in teenagers. In 2023, about 1 in 8 young people aged 17 to 19 had an eating disorder.
  • Sadly, more people are taking their own lives. The suicide rate in England and Wales in 2023 was the highest it’s been in over 20 years.
  • Mental health services are overwhelmed. In 2023, they received 5 million requests for help in England alone, which is a third more than in 2019 [BMA, 2025].
  • People are waiting too long before they get support on Mental Health Issues. Over 270,000 children and young people were on waiting lists for mental health support in 2022-23.

These facts show that mental health problems are becoming more common and more severe, and that the UK is struggling to provide enough support for everyone who needs it.

Look at other number that points to this below.

Mental Health Services are struggling to keep up with demand. By late 2024, over 270,300 young people were still waiting for mental health support after being referred

The Pressure on Health Services

Mental health problems are putting a lot of pressure on the UK’s health system. In 2022-23, almost one million young people (949,200) were sent to get help from Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services in England.

This is 8% of all children in the country.

Even though services are trying to grow, they can’t keep up with how many people need help. By late 2024, more than 270,300 young people were still waiting for mental health help after being referred.

These aren’t just numbers – they’re real young people whose lives are on hold while they wait for important help.

The waiting times for getting help are very different for different people.

Of the 305,000 young people who got help in 2022-23, they usually waited about 35 days.

But nearly 40,000 children had to wait more than two years. Waiting this long can make their mental health problems worse and lead to serious problems.

How COVID-19 Made Things Worse

The COVID-19 pandemic clearly made mental health problems worse for young people.

A survey by YoungMinds found that 83% of young people who already had mental health needs said the coronavirus pandemic made their mental health worse.

This shows how the pandemic affected young people’s mental health long after the immediate health crisis.

Between July and September 2023, there were 575 incidents of self-harm involving 94 children and young people in secure facilities

Self-Harm and Suicide Risks

The mental health crisis among young people is even more serious when we look at self-harm and suicide numbers.

In 2018-19, 24% of 17-year-olds said they had hurt themselves on purpose in the last year, and 7% said they had tried to hurt themselves with thoughts of suicide at some point.

Even more worrying is that suicide was the main reason young people aged five to 34 died in 2019.

The risk is especially high for young people who have mental health problems that doctors can diagnose. Almost half of 17-19 year-olds with diagnosed mental health problems have hurt themselves or tried suicide at some point.

This number goes up to 52.7% for young women. These numbers show we need to help people early and give them lots of support to prevent these sad outcomes.

đź“ŚRelated Course: Buy Self-Harm e-Learning Course Today.

Problems Getting Help

Even though many young people have mental health problems, it’s still hard to get help. Only about one in three young people with a mental health problem that doctors can diagnose get help from the NHS.

This problem isn’t just about not having enough resources – it’s also about knowing how to get help.

A YoungMinds survey found that two-thirds (67%) of young people would rather get mental health help without seeing their regular doctor first, but half (53%) didn’t know other ways to get help.

What’s Being Done to Help

To deal with this growing problem, NHS England is working to add more mental health support services.

By Spring 2025, they plan to have 398 Mental Health Support Teams working in schools and colleges.

These teams will give early help to young people with mild to moderate mental health problems. They should be able to help more than half of all students in England.

But the problem is so big that we need even more complete solutions.

The Education Committee says the current ability of Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services to help everyone is “very inadequate,” showing we need much more money and resources.

By 2025, around 54% of students might get access to these support teams, which means about half of all students can currently receive help.

Long-Term Effects

The current mental health problems among young people in the UK will affect them when they grow up too.

Research shows that one-third of adult mental health problems are directly connected to bad experiences in childhood. Adults who had four or more bad experiences in childhood are four times more likely to have poor mental health and be less happy with life.

These numbers show how important it is to help with mental health problems early in life.

If we don’t, it not only affects how children and young people feel now but also affects their future health, ability to work, and quality of life.

👉Related: Mental Health First Aid Training.

What We Need to Do

  • Provide Early Support: We need to spot and help with mental health problems when they first start. Schools and community groups need to know how to find and help children who show early signs of mental health problems.
  • Special Help for Eating Disorders: With the big increase in eating disorders, especially among young women, we need special programs to help. This includes better ways to check for problems, special training for health workers, and programs made just for people with eating disorders.
  • Fix Service Gaps: The long waiting times for mental health help show we urgently need more money and resources for children’s mental health services. This means making current services bigger and finding new ways to help more young people quickly.
  • Work Together: Mental health problems are complicated, so we need schools, families, doctors, and government officials to work together. This could include teaching about mental health in schools, helping parents and caregivers, and getting different groups to work together to create a complete support system.
  • Use Technology: Since many young people want different ways to get help, we need to explore and grow online mental health services. This could include online counseling, mental health apps, and online support groups, all made with young people’s needs in mind.

The path forward needs more than just more resources and bigger services – we need to change how our whole society thinks about mental health.

We need to create places – in homes, schools, and communities – that help mental health from an early age. We need new ways to give mental health support, using technology and new methods to reach young people where they are.

And we need everyone to work together to remove the shame and silence that often stop young people from asking for help.

As we go further into 2025 and beyond, young people’s mental health must stay one of our most important health priorities. The numbers show us we have big problems, but they also show us how to fix them.

By acting quickly and working together, we can work toward a future where every young person in the UK gets the support they need to be mentally and emotionally healthy.

We can’t wait to act – the cost of doing nothing is too high.

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