A Daily Mail investigation has revealed a shocking fact that a child was hospitalized every 20 minutes last year on average after intentionally poisoning themselves with drugs or alcohol. UK hospitals admit one child after every 20 minutes over drugs usage.
The British daily reports that over the previous five years, hospital admissions for youngsters who self-harmed with drugs or alcohol have skyrocketed, with admissions for those between the ages of ten and fourteen increasing by 58%, from 5,520 to 8,749.
Lockdowns, social media, and a lack of sufficient mental health care, according to experts, are to blame for the issue as UK hospitals admit one child every 20 minutes over drugs usage
Timothy Loughton, a Conservative lawmaker and former minister for children, termed the statistics “shocking” and urged the government to investigate the issue further.
He said: “Despite the determination of this government to achieve parity of esteem between mental illness and physical illness and the extra investment in young people’s mental health services, we still need more and more urgent interventions for our children. The unseen consequences of the Covid lockdown are now coming to the surface as we see the impact of closing schools and depriving children of socializing and learning with their peers on their mental health. Every two months represents 1 percent of a child’s childhood and too much of that growing-up process was taken away from them during the lockdown. While we still have lots to do on academic catch-up, this will amount to little if we do not attend to repairing the mental well-being of children at the same time.”
The report states that over the past five years, hospital admissions for this type of self-harm for all 0 to 19-year-olds climbed by almost 20%, from 22,313 in 2017/18 to 26,450 in 2021/22, or one admission every 20 minutes in average.
400 of the 117,616 children hospitalized since 2017 for intentionally poisoning themselves with drugs or alcohol were under the age of ten.
According to NHS Digital statistics, non-opioid medicines, such as ibuprofen or paracetamol, were the drugs most commonly to blame, causing 18,594 admissions last year.
Alcohol was the cause of 113 hospitalizations, while drugs of abuse and hallucinogens were the cause of 1,188.
Children were hospitalized 23,298 times for drug- or alcohol-related self-harm during the first year of lockdown. This increased to 26,450 in the following year.
