The number of children admitted to hospital emergency wards in the UK with serious mental health concerns has increased by 65% ​​in a decade, with a particularly alarming rise in girls who self-harm, research shows.

Doctors treat nearly 40,000 children with acute mental illness on general wards each year, up from about 24,000 a decade ago. This increase is six times greater than the 10.1% increase in admissions for all types of children during the same period.

The Guardian has previously revealed there has been a surge in children seeking help for mental health problems, including some who need emergency treatment because they have to wait long periods of time to access regular NHS care. The Covid-19 pandemic, social inequality, austerity policies and internet-related harms are a range of factors exacerbating this crisis.

A new study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health reveals for the first time that increasing numbers of people are being admitted to hospital acute wards due to clinical concerns about their mental health.

General acute medical wards are hospital wards designed to provide rapid assessment, treatment and care to patients. These wards serve as a bridge between emergency departments, GPs and other wards, and are separate from specialist mental health wards such as eating disorders wards.

Dr Lee Hudson, senior author of the study from University College London, said: “Over the past decade we have observed a significant increase in the number of children and young people admitted to acute wards for mental health problems.

“While increasing referrals to community mental health services and inpatient mental health facilities have been noted, admissions to general acute care settings feel like a missing piece of the story.”

Hudson said acute wards were playing an increasingly important role in caring for children with co-occurring physical and mental health problems, such as starvation due to eating disorders.

"However, the increased intensity we have described creates real challenges for acute wards, both for patients and their families and for the staff who support them. They may not have the appropriate ward environment set up for this care, sometimes in The staff working there need more training and support in relevant skills.”

Hudson and colleagues found that admissions to acute wards for children aged 5 to 18 for mental illness increased by 65%, from 24,198 in 2012/13 to 39,925 in 2021/22. The analysis showed that more than half (53.4%) were due to self-harm.

In comparison, the number of people admitted to hospital for all reasons increased by 10.1% during the same period, from 311,067 to 342,511.

Dr Karen Street, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said the 65% increase was further evidence of the "shocking deterioration" in the mental health of children and young people.

There has been a particularly sharp increase in mental health admissions for girls aged 11 to 15, with the study also highlighting "relatively sharp increases" in children aged 5 to 10 and "alarming rates of self-harm among women".

The number of hospital admissions for eating disorders each year has also increased, from 478 to 2,938.

Between 2012/13 and 2021/22, 239,541 children and young people were admitted to hospital for mental health problems, of whom 13.4% were readmitted within six months.

Hudson and his colleagues are trying to figure out why more children are being admitted to acute wards for mental health reasons, he said.

"But it may be that there is a greater background prevalence of mental health problems, and the severity of individual cases may be increasing, leading to an increase in hospital visits requiring emergency admission to general wards because it is not safe for patients to go home."

Hudson said analysis showed the increase was not solely attributable to COVID-19, with hospital admissions increasing every year since 2012.

“This issue now appears to be core business in acute wards and is not going away, so a focus on improving care is vital.”

Claire Murdoch, mental health director for England, said the NHS had deployed hundreds of mental health teams in schools and provided 24/7 crisis support through 111 to cope with record numbers of people seeking help, but Sometimes it is in their best interests to be hospitalized so they can get "strong specialist support" and reduce the risk of harm.