As we spin out of one health crisis with Covid we are in danger of overlooking another emergency directly related to the pandemic.
Speak to any secondary school teacher and they will tell you that the incidence of mental health issues amongst pupils has exploded during lockdown.
The anxiety and uncertainty caused by the pandemic has had an effect on us all, but young people in the pressure cooker of losing valuable education time, contact with their friends and social groups have been particularly vulnerable.
As with education itself, the warning signs on the lack of proper provision of mental health services were there long before the pandemic.
Lockdown has just intensified and magnified the problem. The latest figures for young people waiting for mental health therapy are frankly shameful.
Routine delays of two years for treatment are quite simply signs of a health care system dumping young people in the waiting room of life from which they may never move on.
MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton is right to say it is “torture” to leave anyone, particularly the young, in such mental neglect.
It is true to say that additional resources have been found, and a mental health emergency has been declared by the Scottish Government.
But the evidence is that this is not filtering through into improved waiting times for our children. To argue that the government does not have the ability to deal with the crisis while dealing with corona is simply not good enough.
We cannot let Covid or a lack of urgency condemn this generation of young people.
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