Childhood mental health crisis 'costing economy £1tn a year'

Britain loses £1tn a year in lifetime lost earnings as a direct result of the mental health crisis in young people, new research claims.

- Anna Bawden

Published to launch the new Future Minds mental health campaign, the study forecasts the financial burden of failing to tackle the mental health crisis.

The four charities behind the campaign - the Centre for Mental Health, Centre for Young Lives, Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition and YoungMinds - said the government needed "to acknowledge the scale of the crisis in children's mental health and ignore 'wishful thinking' that it is exaggerated or a result of 'over-medicalisation'.

More than 500 children a day in England are referred to mental health services for anxiety, while the number of children referred to emergency mental healthcare in England has risen by 10% in a year.

In all, one in five children and young people experience a common mental health problem such as anxiety or depression.