growing number of young people with eating disorders are being referred for urgent help, the head of the NHS said today.
Sir Simon Stevens stressed that millions more would be spent to boost services for these individuals.
The Covid-19 epidemic, with three lockdowns, is affecting many young people’s mental health, according to experts, including leading to eating disorders for some of them.
Giving evidence to the Commons health and social care committee, Sir Simon said: “The area, frankly, in mental health services where we are seeing real pressure is increasing urgent referrals for eating disorder services.
“Although, we have had improvments in access to those services over the last several years, they are now really under pressure.
“We have another £500 million that the Chancellor made available in the last Spending Review to invest for these extra mental health needs during the course of next year and those eating disorder services for young people will be towards the front of the queue for that.”
Doctors warned last month that cases of anorexia and other eating disorders had quadrupled in some areas in the coronavirus epidemic during which many children have been off school for long periods.
In some cases, teachers have been the first to raise concerns over youngsters losing weight or developing another eating disorder, which is not happening with schools closed for the majority of pupils.
The lockdown has also hit people’s ability to exercise, meet friends and do sport.
Hundreds of thousands of university students have also been restricted in visiting their homes.
Fewer face-to-face meetings with health professionals is believed to have contributed to some young people getting more seriously ill, with some having to be taken to emergency departments to be admitted to hospital for physical stabilisation and re-feeding.
Eating disorders include eating too much or too little, being obsessed with weight or body shape, deliberately being sick after eating and doing too much exercise.
Some 500,000 children and teenagers who had no mental health problems before Covid-19 are now expected to need support in 2021, on top of the one in six already identified by the NHS.
The Standard has teamed up with Place2Be, the UK’s leading provider of schools-based mental health services, to boost help for young people.
The charity works in 150 primary and secondary schools in London but the aim is that by 2025 it can double the number of pupils it reaches.
Hospital admission for children with eating disorders has spiralled by one-fifth in two years and by almost one-third among all age groups, according to official figures.
