Rising youth mental distress is real, not overdiagnosis; the government must respond with reform and new funding
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial. "The Guardian view on mental health: overdiagnosis is not the problem facing young people | Editorial | The Guardian." October 11, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The Guardian argues that a major review shows young people's mental health really has got worse, so claims that we are just over-labelling normal feelings are wrong. The real problem is that services are swamped and people need a diagnosis just to get help. The government should respond with proper reform and extra money, not just tighter rules on assessments.
Conclusion
Overdiagnosis is not the problem facing young people in England; the rise in mental distress and neurodevelopmental need is real and tied to social change, so the government must treat it as a service-capacity and resourcing failure and respond with serious reform and new investment.
Premises
- The independent review chaired by Prof Peter Fonagy found that mental distress across the population, particularly among young people, has substantially worsened, and Fonagy said claims of widespread overdiagnosis were 'completely wrong' (a claim Wes Streeting acknowledged).
- The rises in psychological distress and in need for neurodevelopmental support are real and linked to social changes, rather than to the medicalisation of ordinary states of mind.
- Services are not meeting demand: years-long queues for mental health and neurodevelopmental care exist (and are not counted in official waiting-list figures), and 'parity of esteem' with physical health remains far from realised.
- Diagnosis became a 'door to support' because demand overwhelmed services and diagnosis-based thresholds became a form of triage, which explains the surge in assessments, including private ones, better than overdiagnosis does.
- Broader reforms, such as a 10-year plan and merging mental health and neurodevelopmental support into one service, cannot be achieved without new funds, even if some reordering of waiting lists could be done cheaply.
Assumptions
- The independent review's findings are authoritative and reliable evidence about the scale and nature of the rise in distress.
- Increased help-seeking and diagnosis reflects genuine need rather than a lowered threshold for labelling normal experience.
- Demand-driven diagnosis as a route to support does not by itself indicate overdiagnosis.
- Mental health and neurodevelopmental care should be funded and prioritised on a par with physical health.
- Meaningful improvement requires increased spending, including a larger share of health budgets, rather than efficiency gains alone.
- The government's fiscal rules are a constraint that can and should be balanced against the need for investment.