YOUNG people are being forced to wait three months to gain access to mental health services in the Borders.

New figures show that waiting times for child and adolescent support have soared by almost 300 per cent since 2012/13.

The data shows youngsters are having to wait, on average, 13 weeks to be seen – nine weeks longer than five years ago.

And the statistics, revealed by the Scottish Government, have been slammed by local Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton.

She said: “With social media and other modern day pressures, there seems to be a significant rise in the number of mental health problems in young people, which is very worrying.

“To hear that they are now having to wait for three months to see someone in the Borders is just not acceptable.

“I will write to the minister for mental health for an explanation to why there has been such a significant jump in so little time.”

Labour’s South Scotland list MSP Colin Smyth also labelled the figures unacceptable and called for more to be done: “Behind these figures are vulnerable children and young people in the Borders being denied the help they need, when they need it and that is just not acceptable.

“There is a staff shortage right across our NHS, and vacancy rates within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is at the highest level ever recorded. As a result Scotland is gripped by a mental health crisis.

“Early intervention would help tackle this crisis, giving children and young adults the support they need, before anybody reaches the stage of needing clinical treatment.

“That is why Scottish Labour has called for access to school-based counselling for every child and young person who needs, which would help hundreds across the Scottish Borders.”

However, bosses at NHS Borders say they expect the average waiting times to reduce within the next six months.

The health board’s chief officer Robert McCulloch-Graham said: “Traditionally the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in the Borders has performed well with regards to waiting times.

“We have introduced a new IT system which has changed the way that we record and report data and makes reliable comparisons to past performance more difficult. Patients who have been referred to our CAMHS service as a priority continue to be seen either the same working day or within five working days, dependent on the urgency of the referral.

“However, we do recognise that for routine referrals there appears to have been an increase in the average time from referral to treatment.

“This has been due to a combination of staffing availability and overall capacity within the service. We have increased the capacity of the CAHMS team and have already seen a reduction in waiting times.”