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Thousands of people are still waiting six months or more to access specialist psychological support in Wales

Wednesday, 09 October 2024 Mind

Freedom of Information Requests from Mind Cymru show around 2,000 people a month in Wales with moderate and severe mental health conditions are still waiting more than 6 months to receive therapies.

  • In some months between 2020 and 2024 the number waiting 6 months or more was over 3,000 people.
  • The charity says a lack of transparency around how data is collected and shared means exact numbers waiting are largely unknown.
  • It comes as the Welsh Government’s Minister for Mental Health prepares to make a statement before World Mental Health day.

Around 2,000 adults with severe and enduring mental health problems are still waiting for 6 months or more to access specialist psychological therapies in Wales, and over 750 more for a year or longer, according to up-to-date figures from Local Health Boards across Wales.

Statistics collated by Mind Cymru through Freedom of Information Requests to all 7 Local Health Boards show up to 7,500 people currently remain on waiting lists each month for talking therapies in Wales, and an average of nearly 6,000 each month since April 2019.

Some months within that time have seen as many as more than 3,000 people waiting more than 6 months to be seen. At least 700 people have been waiting for 12 months or more each month since April 2019, and at certain points over 1,300 people for more than a year.

The data follows Wales’ First Minister taking the positive step to include mental health services when tackling patient waiting times in Wales, as a recently identified priority for the Welsh Government.

In response, Mind Cymru is revealing its latest findings alongside a call for Welsh Government to increase capacity for specialist psychological therapies. The charity is also calling for stricter guidelines on the way Local Health Boards report and share waiting time data, and for these figures to be made public.

Kayleigh Francis, aged 27 from Swansea, started EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization) therapy through the NHS this year after being diagnosed with BPD (borderline personality disorder) aged 19. She is now back on another waiting list after being referred for emotional regulation therapy, without any indication as to how long this might take.

Kayleigh said: “Nothing gets better during that time (you are waiting), you just try and manage things before they get worse again. I was first diagnosed with BPD at 19 and I was waiting to see someone, but nothing ever came from it, no letter - nothing.

“I then went to university and had another break down and was put on the waiting list again. At the start of 2024 I did manage to start EDR therapy through the NHS but by that time my life had changed and lots of other things had happened to me, including the loss of people I loved.

“I was trying to work my way through so much grief and lots of other feelings, and it meant the kind of therapy I was receiving was just too traumatic. I was then advised that emotional regulation therapy would be better, and now I have no idea how long that is going to take either.

“When you first reach out, that’s when you need the support, and then who knows what can happen in that time afterwards? The waiting is causing more trauma for people, more breakdowns for people, more suicide attempts for people – more people self-harming before they can be seen.  I have been in that situation many times.”

This is the second time Mind Cymru requested this data from Local Health Boards, the first in 2020. They found there has been little to no change in waiting times for adults needing specialist psychological support services since before the Covid 19 pandemic.

Figures for October 2020 to April 2024 show there is still major variation across Local Health Boards on the numbers of people waiting for psychological therapies per head, and that the findings of that report are still largely valid now.

Sue O ‘Leary, Director at Mind Cymru, said without the right data to hand from Local Health Boards it was difficult for Welsh Government to say it was truly committed to improving access to psychological therapies for adults in Wales.

“People on these waiting lists are living with serious and enduring mental health conditions. Nobody should be waiting more than a year for specialist psychological therapies.

“In 2015, the Welsh Government earmarked £2 million for improving access to psychological therapies as part of its Together for Mental Health strategy and nearly 10 years on, we’re no closer to knowing if that strategy is working or not.

“The quality of treatment adults in Wales receive is good when they can access it, and Kayleigh’s experiences are testament to this, but what is also clear is that there is increasing need for support and the mental health system is struggling to meet this demand,

“Just as the Welsh Government’s new Draft Mental Health Strategy is taking shape, we are still at risk of all that good work going to waste without a true picture of what’s happening with waiting times coming from our Local Health Boards in the process. The recent commitment by the new First Minister to tackling waiting times, including for mental health, is welcome but there is much work to be done to ensure access to support is timely.

“With this in mind, Mind Cymru is calling for more investment into specialist psychological therapies, more robust governance in the way Local Health Boards collate and submit waiting time data, and for the public to be made aware of those figures.”

In 2020 Mind Cymru published the ‘Too Long To Wait’ report, which made a number of recommendations to Welsh Government to improve waiting times.

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