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BBC News
14-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Thousands of children on 'hidden' ADHD and autism waiting lists
Thousands of children are on "hidden" waiting lists for autism and ADHD assessments, experts have told the is despite the Scottish government hitting its waiting times target for young people's mental health services for the first time last Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) said the number of children on separate lists waiting to be assessed for neurodevelopmental conditions is not routinely published and the Scottish government needs to be more Scottish government said long waits for neurodevelopmental support were unacceptable and it was increasing funding to improve access to services. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) aims to help children with mental health problems which are causing a significant impact on their day-to-day lives, such as anxiety, depression, self-harm and eating month, the latest official figures showed that 90% of young people had started treatment within 18 weeks of referral to was the first time the target had been reached since it was set more than a decade Dr Laura Sutherland, who is the vice chair of the RCPsych child & adolescent faculty, said children who are the most at risk are prioritised which can result in people with a neurodevelopmental condition waiting longer."Often there is not an immediate risk which is why some of these young people can wait for longer but I think overall the impact is longer term," she said. "It means young people can't get into education or be supported adequately and ultimately some of these young people will go on to develop mental health conditions on the back of neurodiverse conditions." BBC Scotland News submitted Freedom of Information requests last year to try to gain an insight into the scale of waiting lists for young people looking for help with neurodevelopmental Greater Glasgow and Clyde said 7,560 children were waiting for a first appointment as of last spring, while for NHS Lothian the figure was 6,192 and for NHS Lanarkshire it was 8, Highland said 1,537 children were waiting for a neurodevelopmental assessment not all health boards collect this data in the same way and it is not consistently published. Dr Sutherland, who is also a consultant psychiatrist for CAMHS in Tayside, told the BBC the Scottish government should be more transparent about these "hidden waits".She said there should be ring-fenced funding for neurodevelopmental pathways to support vulnerable young are a number of routes for children to get a neurodevelopmental most common are for autism and children may be referred to paediatrics but many will initially go through CAMHS then be put on a neurodevelopmental waiting is the same specialist healthcare staff working with CAMHS, including psychiatrists, who carry out neurodevelopmental assessments and give there is competition for the resources which are already has been an increase in demand across the country in recent March, NHS Tayside stopped all new referrals for ADHD and autism to CAMHS due to increase demand for assessments. Suzi Martin, from the National Autistic Society Scotland, said she was very concerned at the withdrawal of autism assessment services in some areas."Not only is diagnosis a validating and life-affirming experience for many, but families tell us that it can be extremely challenging, if not impossible, to get support without one," she Martin said the society had been calling for more transparency on autism assessment waiting times for years and said they should be published, like they are in England. The Salvesen Mindroom Centre, a charity that works with young people in Scotland who are neurodivergent, has seen a 295% increase in the number of people it supported last year compared to Thornburrow, the chief executive officer, said: "We can't possibly respond to the levels of demand that are out there, it's just impossible to service."He said there has been a huge increase in the prevalence in anxiety in the young people they support. Rosie, 16, was referred to CAMHS when she was eight. She was living with her grandparents who helped her get mental health support and she had her first appointment after waiting a took five years before she was diagnosed with autism."Getting that confirmation, it was quite emotional and I cried," Rosie said."Then in the weeks following it just gave me a better understanding of myself."She said having an NHS autism diagnosis opened up access to a lot of Covid lockdowns Rosie struggled with her mental health, she became anxious when she left the house and stopped going to continued sessions with CAMHS but found there were long waits between more regular one-to-one sessions with a support worker from Salvesen Mindroom Centre, Rosie said she worked on her anxiety and confidence and has returned to education this year."I'm more bubbly of a person. I wasn't as smiley or as happy but she's helped me come out of my shell," she said. Rising demand There are a wide range of forms of neurodivergence including autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette Syndrome or ADHD which can impact many aspects of life in different is characterised by difficulties with impulsivity, maintaining attention and restlessness while autism is associated with social communication difficulties, focused interests and repetitive Sutherland said it is a positive step that children are being seen within the CAMHS target timeframe but warns that there can still be long waits for further treatment or between sessions because of staff shortages and rising demand."We are short of about 500 staff of all types - psychiatrists, psychologists, nursing staff - so it is very difficult to meet these targets," she RCPsych said that referrals to CAMHS had gone up 3% in the past year, with a 500% increase in those referred for eating disorders. A Scottish government spokesperson said: "We are clear that long waits for neurodevelopmental support are unacceptable and it is vital that children and families receive support and access to services that meet their needs at the earliest opportunity."In 2024-25 the Scottish government allocated £123.5m to NHS Boards to support increased access to mental health services – including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and neurodevelopmental services, in addition to core funding allocations."Health boards continue to make good progress towards the target that 1% of frontline spend is made on CAHMS by the end of this Parliament. Latest data for 2023-24 shows spend has increased to 0.82% of total NHS expenditure."
BBC News
02-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
How aid becomes a weapon in Myanmar's war zone
In the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, there is a 72-hour "golden window" when those trapped under rubble are most likely to in the 72 hours after a 7.7 magnitude quake struck Myanmar on Friday, rescue and relief workers seeking access to some of the worst-hit areas were blocked by military authorities, multiple aid and human rights groups told the was despite a rare plea for international humanitarian assistance by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing."I would like to invite any country, any organisation, or anyone in Myanmar to come and help," he said in a speech shortly after the disaster, claiming he had "opened all ways for foreign aid".On the ground, things moved less freely."I've talked to a few people now that were part of the rescue efforts in both Sagaing and Mandalay, and they said that [the military] imposed a curfew… the roads were blocked, the checkpoints were really long, and there was a huge checking of goods and services going in and a lot of questioning," John Quinley, director of international human rights group Fortify Rights, told the BBC."It could have just been a lot easier to allow those people in," he added. "Obviously the Myanmar junta said it was for safety reasons, but I don't believe that's totally legitimate."Meanwhile, the golden window the time of writing, more than 2,886 people in Myanmar are confirmed dead as a result of the earthquake. On Tuesday night, an attack on an aid convoy further exacerbated 21:21, a convoy of nine Chinese Red Cross Society vehicles carrying earthquake relief supplies was attacked by the military, according to Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), a resistance group in Shan convoy was traveling toward Mandalay when it was fired upon by soldiers with machine guns, forcing it to turn back, the TNLA said in a Telegram post late on Tuesday.A junta spokesperson later confirmed that soldiers had shot at the vehicles, saying they had not been notified that the convoy would be passing through and fired warning shots after it failed to this is not the first time the junta has attacked aid workers, Mr Quinley said."They pick and choose when aid can go in, and if they can't monitor it and they can't use it how they want, they restrict it," he said. "They definitely also, on top of that, actively target humanitarian workers." The junta, which began fighting a civil war with resistance forces in Myanmar after it seized control of the country in 2021, has a history of weaponising aid and humanitarian assistance: funnelling it towards areas that are under its control and restricting it in areas that are BBC assessed the power balance in more than 14,000 village groups as of mid-November last year, and found the military only has full control of 21% of Myanmar's territory, nearly four years on from the start of the conflict. In previous natural disasters, such as Cyclone Mocha in 2023 and Typhoon Yagi in 2024, which left hundreds dead, the military obstructed relief efforts in resistance-held areas by refusing to release supplies from customs, authorise travel for aid workers or relax restrictions on lifesaving assistance."It's a worrying trend that happens in times of crisis, like the earthquake," Mr Quinley said. "The junta is blocking any aid to what they see as groups that are aligned with the broader resistance."James Rodehaver, head of the Myanmar team at the Office for the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, further suggested that the junta deprives Myanmar's population of aid as a form of punishment."They do that because the local population, by and large, does not support them, so by depriving them of humanitarian aid, they are both punishing them but also cutting off their ability to support themselves and be resilient," he told the are already signs the junta may be repeating this tactic in central Myanmar, which includes the cities of Sagaing and Mandalay, is nominally run by the junta - meaning aid can only be delivered to the area with their co-operation - large parts of the broader Sagaing and Mandalay regions are considered resistance likelihood that the junta might tactically deprive these areas of aid has prompted outcry from hundreds of human rights and civil society organisations, who have urged the international community to ensure relief efforts get to where they're most needed, and aren't channelled through the military such statement, signed by 265 civil society organisations and released on Sunday, notes that most of the worst-hit areas are under the effective control and administration of pro-democracy resistance groups."Myanmar's history provides stark warnings about the dangers of channelling aid through the military junta," it reads. In Sagaing, the impact of aid shortfalls can already be seen in troubling ways, according to relief speak of shortages of food, water and fuel, while trucks carrying aid are stranded at military checkpoints around the city. Hundreds of residents, suddenly homeless, are sleeping outside on the street. Rescue volunteers who were forced to dig through the rubble with their bare hands have run out of body bags for those they couldn't community members seeking to respond to the earthquake are being forced to get authorisation from junta authorities by submitting lists of volunteers and items to be donated, local media tactic – of bombarding responders with lengthy bureaucratic checklists and processes – is routinely deployed by the junta to restrict the activities of international aid organisations in Myanmar, humanitarian sources told the to a registration law imposed in 2023, such organisations must attain a registration certificate, and often sign a memorandum of understanding with relevant government ministries, to legally operate inside the source, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said aid groups are often required to remove certain activities, areas or townships from their proposals, with no room for negotiation. Areas where the junta doesn't have oversight or control over the aid work are typically those that are disallowed, they agencies have found ways to navigate the junta's restriction, however: a lot of humanitarian assistance in Myanmar happens underground, via local groups that can bypass checkpoints and distribute aid without attracting the attention of the financial transactions in humanitarian aid also happen outside of Myanmar's banking system, so that actors can avoid scrutiny and potential investigation from the country's central bank, a source told the BBC. In some cases, humanitarian organisations open bank accounts in Thailand so that they can privately receive aid funds, then carry the money over the border into Myanmar in covert methods take time, however, and could lead to potentially fatal delays of days or weeks. Some aid workers are hopeful that, given the scale of Friday's earthquake and the international appeal for assistance by Min Aung Hlaing, it may be easier to overcome barriers and provide aid more efficiently."In the past we have faced some challenges," said Louise Gorton, an emergency specialist based in Unicef's East Asia and Pacific Regional Office."The scale of this emergency, though, is significantly higher… I think there will be pressure on the regime to ensure unfettered and unimpeded humanitarian access - and we'll continue to repeat the same need and find ways, sometimes low-key ways, to deliver aid."Cara Bragg, country manager for the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) team in Myanmar, said that while it's too early to tell whether the junta will truly "open all ways for foreign aid", her team is prepared to navigate the complex humanitarian situation to deliver assistance."It's certainly a concern that they [the military] may direct the aid in specific places, and not based on need," said Ms Bragg, who is based in Yangon. "But as humanitarian actors CRS works under a humanitarian mandate, and will be very focused on getting aid to the places it needs to go - to the hardest-hit areas, regardless of who controls them."Early indications suggest that, despite Min Aung Hlaing's plea to the international community, the embattled junta leader is unlikely to prioritise the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid. Shortly after the earthquake, military jets launched a series of airstrikes on affected areas, killing more than 50 civilians, according to the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC).Then, on Tuesday, Min Aung Hlaing rejected ceasefire proposals that were put forward by resistance groups in a bid to facilitate aid. Military operations would continue as "necessary protective measures", he junta changed its mind a day later, agreeing to 20-day ceasefire to help relief efforts. But it remains to be seen whether the pause in hostilities holds – the military stressed it would "respond accordingly" if rebels launched many onlookers, this seeming contradiction - of asking for aid with one hand while conducting military strikes with the other - chimes with Min Aung Hlaing's history of Quinley, from Fortify Rights, suggested that the recent appeal for foreign aid is more likely an appeal for international before the military's ceasefire announcement, he noted that the junta leader had "lied on numerous occasions about ceasefires and the gross violations he's commanded".Against that backdrop, Mr Quinley added, it's critical to ensure earthquake relief gets to where it is most needed."I'm not hopeful when it comes to taking what Min Aung Hlaing says with any hint of truth," he said."I think as a human rights group we need to monitor: OK, [Min Aung Hlaing] allows aid in - but is it actually reaching people in need? Or is he weaponising the aid? Is he blocking the aid from getting to communities in need?"
BBC News
21-03-2025
- BBC News
Cocaine being smuggled to UK via sea drops, Border Force warns
South American drug gangs are dropping cocaine in the sea around the UK to be picked up by smaller boats and brought to shore, Border Force has of millions of pounds worth of drugs are being wrapped in flotation devices equipped with trackers, allowing gang members in Britain to see where they are, officials sophisticated method of smuggling large quantities of the drug into the UK has become a "significant and persistent threat", they week, a court heard that four British men were arrested after picking up a tonne of cocaine, with a street value of £100m, left near the Isles of Scilly in September. They face lengthy prison sentences. In an effort to intercept the parcels, Border Force has deployed its cutter units, alongside highly trained sniffer News got rare access to this unit, including a dog called Flash who sniffed out a cocaine haul hidden among bananas on a ship inbound from South America in January. The drugs - packed in waterproof parcels and equipped with trackers - were found behind the locked doors of a container on the vessel, which was stopped off the coast of Dover, Kent, and had a street value of more than £50m."They were bundled into around 30kg blocks, with life jackets which would then be inflated… and that would be thrown overboard," Charlie Eastaugh, maritime director at Border Force, told the tactic known as an ASDO, or at-sea-drop-off, has led to seizures of multiple tonnes of cocaine over recent years, he says. 'Track, locate, seize' Drugs are transported on so-called "mother" ships by gangs in South America who are in touch with criminals in the UK using satellite phones. When the vessels are in British waters the packages are thrown overboard to be collected by smaller "daughter" boats, which locate the Eastaugh says the problem is "significant" but "we are able to identify, track, locate, seize and ultimately prosecute and imprison those that are involved". Last week, Truro Crown Court heard that last September four men on a boat called the Lily Lola sailed to an area near the Scilly Isles on instructions from a gang in South they retrieved a tonne of cocaine dumped by a larger vessel floating in the sea - but before they could bring it back to shore they were intercepted by officers from the Williams, 46, the captain of the boat, and Patrick Godfrey, 31, both from Swansea, were hired by Michael Kelly, 45, and Jake Marchant, 27, because of their boat handling skills, the court will return to court to be sentenced on 8 May. There have been a number of other high-profile incidents over the last two years, including: Parcels of cocaine washed up along beaches on the Isle of Wight in October 2023Bags of the drug were found at Durdle Door in Dorset, also in 2023, and at Goring, in West SussexAn inflatable boat was intercepted off Suffolk, in June 2024, carrying drugs retrieved from a mother ship. Two men dived off the boat in a failed attempt to escape Border Force officers. Prof Adam Winstock, a consultant psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist who spends much of his time working in prisons, says the purity and price of cocaine has "remained immune to inflation over the last five years".As a result, he says "it doesn't matter to [smugglers] if they lose 20% of shipments" through seizures by authorities because the mark-up on the drug is so high. Despite record seizures in 2024, the number of cocaine-linked deaths in the UK is at a 30-year high. There were 1,118 deaths in 2023 - ten times higher than in 2011, according to the latest figures from the Office of National Evans from the NCA, who led the investigation into the Lily Lola, warned people working in the fishing community: "If someone from a crime group approaches you, please let the police know. If you are tempted to go into this line of industry in the criminal framework, think twice".
BBC News
23-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Invisible Losses: Tens of thousands fighting for Russia are dying unnoticed on the frontline in Ukraine
Over 95,000 people fighting for Russia's military have now died as the war in Ukraine enters the fourth year, according to data analysed by the figure doesn't include those who were killed serving in the militia of the self-proclaimed Donbas republics which we estimate to be between 21,000 and 23,500 Russian, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers have been counting deaths since February list includes names of the deceased that we verified using information from official reports, newspapers, social media, and new memorials and graves. The real death toll is believed to be much higher. Drafted and disposable Daniil Dudnikov, a 21-year-old history student at Donetsk National University, was reading international relations and enjoyed the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, on 24 February 2022, the authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic forcibly mobilised Daniil and despatched him to the Kharkiv a month later, on 25 March, Daniil went missing in action. Of the 18 soldiers in his unit, none returned. 13 were killed, and five were taken prisoner. Four months later, following a prisoner exchange, those who had survived confirmed that Daniil had been one of the 13 killed in story mirrors those of thousands of other residents from the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, created in 2014 by Moscow-backed separatists in the predominantly Russian-speaking parts of eastern the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, civilian men were drafted en masse, often inadequately trained and poorly equipped before being assigned to near-impossible missions. This resulted in a staggering number of dead and missing soldiers, the fate of whom often remains unknown for months or years. According to our analysis of published obituaries and missing persons reports from the regions, the majority of deaths in Donbass militias occurred during the first year of the invasion, a toll comparable to the total number of confirmed Russian military losses over the same period - 25,769 despite many people in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine having relatives or friends in Russia, they are far less integrated into the country's everyday life, which makes their losses less "visible" to ordinary Russians. Criminals in combat Another large part of the Russian losses are convicts recruited in Sadykov was 59 when he was arrested for stealing a bag at a railway station in Moscow. It was the fourth time he ended up in jail, having spent a total of 16 years behind bars for separate criminal convictions."They told me, 'If you don't want to go back to prison, sign a contract.' They assured me that at my age, I wouldn't be sent to the front, just assigned to an auxiliary role. Well, I went along with it." He recalls, speaking as a prisoner of war after being captured by Ukrainian forces in the summer of a prisoner exchange, he was returned to Russia, where he was sent back to the frontlines again. This month, Ildus Sadykov was killed in the BBC Russian database of war casualties includes 16,171 convicted criminals who were recruited from penal colonies to fight. These are just the cases in which we could verify criminal records through open sources. The actual number of deceased convicts is likely far including an analysis of leaked documents from the Wagner Group private military company, we can estimate that prisoners may make up as much as a third of Russia's military fatalities over the three years of the invasion. Many of these individuals lived in correctional facilities, effectively cut off from broader society, for years on end. A war few can see "The losses are felt most by segments of Russian society with fewer resources, be they educational, financial, or political," says Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, director of the Russia Institute at King's College London."The Kremlin seems to have designed it this way, ensuring that the most privileged sections of society remain largely disconnected from the war. Hence recruitment of prisoners and foreign mercenaries.""In small towns, people are far more aware of the scale of casualties. The war has hit social groups that lack the means not only to protest but even to express their views openly. Discussions are confined to private conversations," she 30% of Russians have had direct exposure to the war, either by fighting in it or family connections to combatants, according to a public opinion poll from the Chronicles project in September 2024. The proportion of Ukrainians who know someone killed or wounded is almost 80%. Measuring genuine support for the war in Russia is difficult, since many respondents fear speaking honestly. But a study commissioned by the PROPA project, supported by the University of Helsinki, found that 43% of surveyed Russians openly backed the invasion."Would public attitudes toward the war be different if more people personally knew the fallen?" asks leading Russian sociologist Viktor Vakhshtayn. "Without a doubt." Counting the dead Russia's actual losses are almost certainly substantially higher than open-source data can reveal. The military analysts we have consulted estimate that the BBC's research, which is based on graveyards, war memorials, and obituaries, probably captures only 45% to 65% of total to which, the bodies of many of those killed in recent months likely remain on the battlefield, since retrieving them requires living soldiers to risk exposure to drone the estimate above, the true number of Russian military deaths could range from 146,194 to 211,169. If one adds estimated losses from DPR and LPR forces, the total number of Russian-aligned fatalities may range from 167,194 to 234, last officially reported its military losses in September 2022, and cited fewer than 6,000 last updated its casualty figures in December 2024, when President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged 43,000 Ukrainian deaths among soldiers and officers. Western analysts believe this figure to be an website Ukraine Losses, which compiles casualty data from open sources, currently lists more than 70,400 surnames of Ukrainian soldiers. Our verification of a random sample of 400 of them found the database to be Ukrainian casualty list is likely more complete than the Russian equivalent, as Ukrainian presidential decrees on posthumous military awards remain publicly accessible. In Russia such data is the war approaches its fourth year, global attention has shifted to the new U.S. administration's push for peace negotiations. We continue to monitor activity at Russian military cemeteries and war memorials, and analyse obituaries, which have surged sharply in number since September last year.
