We're in a mental health pandemic, Somerset charity says

A mental health charity that helps young people in crisis has said the UK is in a "mental health pandemic".

In Charley's Memory was named after 18-year-old Charley Marks from Burnham-on-Sea who killed himself in 2015.

Charity director Dawn Carey said demand for its services had doubled since the coronavirus pandemic began.

A government spokesman said an extra £2.3bn was being invested in mental health services by 2023-24 to help 345,000 more young people annually.

A government spokesperson said: "We are committed to expanding and transforming mental health services in England."

"To address the impacts of the pandemic, we have also provided an extra £79m through our Mental Health Recovery Action Plan to accelerate the expansion of children and young people's mental health services this year including community and eating disorder services."

In Charley's Memory recently won a £390,000 National Lottery grant and said charities were filling the gap as statutory services were failing to meet growing demand.

Ms Carey said: "This really is a mental health pandemic. Worse than most people will ever realise."

"We really need the outstanding community support that we have had to continue to be able to help all the growing numbers of young people in need."

The charity was set up by his mother Jo Clements and supports young people aged from 11-25 by offering one-to-one counselling.

The organisation will use its lottery grant to increase its weekly counselling session capacity from 100 to 400 for the next five years.

"We get referrals every single week from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), from the doctors, from social services, we see these people - they are being failed by the statutory services."

"All the time we say, 'it's good to talk', but who are they going to talk to?" said Ms Carey.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), rates of suicide among young people have "generally increased in recent years," but the overall number remains low.

The deaths of 601 under-25s were recorded as suicides in England and Wales in 2019 compared to 434 a decade earlier.

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