An estimated half a million children and teenagers have turned up at emergency departments suffering mental ill health since 2019, according to shocking new figures from the Royal College of Nursing.Exhausted frontline nurses warned vulnerable youngsters are being trapped for days in chaotic casualty wards never designed to deal with severe psychiatric distress.Some admitted children are being sedated because overcrowded hospitals have nowhere safe to care for them.The scale of the crisis, revealed at the RCN annual congress, has been described by its general secretary, Professor Nicola Ranger, as evidence of a “catastrophic system-wide failure”, while one nurse has described the situation as “absolutely soul-destroying”.The bombshell findings come amid an explosion in anxiety, depression, self-harm and eating disorders among children since the pandemic.Official NHS figures show the number of children receiving treatment or assessments from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) has soared by a third since 2021 – from 649,340 to 863,472 in 2025. At the same time, children are also waiting up to three years for CAMHS treatment.Experts have repeatedly warned successive lockdowns, school disruption, social media pressures and worsening poverty have fuelled a sharp deterioration in children’s mental health.Now Freedom of Information requests from the RCN to NHS trusts across England have laid bare the scale of the crisis hitting A&E departments.An estimated half a million children and teenagers have turned up at emergency departments suffering mental ill health since 2019 | GETTYThe figures show the number of mentally ill children waiting more than 12 hours for admission to a mental health unit has spiralled from 237 in 2019 to 802 last year, which is a rise of 238 per cent. Some youngsters waited more than three days. One London paediatric A&E nurse said: “Long A+E waits for children in mental health crisis are frankly barbaric. It should never happen, but they’re becoming far more normal.”Another senior children’s nurse said staff were overwhelmed by the number of mentally ill youngsters arriving every day. “My job is to look after poorly children but we simply don’t have the capacity or the training to deal with seven or eight mentally ill children a day,” she said. I so often feel powerless. It is absolutely soul-destroying.”Nurses described distressed teenagers suffering psychosis waiting alongside toddlers in noisy, brightly lit emergency departments.Official NHS figures show the number of children receiving treatment or assessments from CAMHS has soared by a third since 2021 | GETTYOne senior nurse warned: “You can have teenagers in heightened distress, potentially in psychosis, waiting to be seen while one- or two-year-olds are toddling around. We’ve had some real near misses. It is utterly unsuitable.”Another London nurse said: “A+E is just seen as this big receptacle for all children who are dysregulated or in crisis. But A+E is not respite for children with mental health concerns. It can often exacerbate their trauma.”Some nurses admit children are increasingly being sedated because packed wards cannot safely manage them.One said: “It is absolutely heartbreaking for both the patient and staff. But often we don’t have a choice.”Hospitals across England reported huge increases in mental health emergencies among children.At University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, attendances rose 76 per cent between 2019 and 2025. Meanwhile, at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, numbers jumped by more than a third. And at Barts Health NHS Trust, cases climbed 27 per cent.Professor Nicola Ranger said: “Half a million children and young people attending A+E in a mental health crisis is evidence of a catastrophic system-wide failure. Nursing staff give their all in the most difficult circumstances, but the fact is that busy and stressful A+Es are wholly unsuitable places for anyone in mental distress, let alone vulnerable children.”She urged ministers to rapidly roll out specialist mental health emergency departments across the country.Professor Ranger also warned the Government’s promised new mental health strategy would “die on the page” unless ministers tackled the root causes of poor mental health among children.She said poverty and insecure housing were helping drive the crisis.The number of children living in temporary accommodation has now reached 176,130.Research by Shelter found 60 per cent of parents believed temporary housing had damaged their children’s physical or mental health.The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warned children’s mental health problems are becoming more severe and complex.Dr Sam Jones said: “Problems are more complex and severe, more younger children are affected, and rates of self-harm and eating disorders continue to rise. Yet services remain dangerously underfunded, leaving healthcare professionals unable to meet growing demand.”A Government spokesperson said: “Too many children and young people are reaching crisis point with their mental health, and far too often they are ending up in A&E as a result – that must change.“No one should be forced to wait 12 hours for care, but the issue goes beyond waits alone – we need to make sure every child gets the right support much earlier, before problems escalate.“That’s why we will publish a new mental health strategy this year, focused on earlier intervention and faster access, backed by more staff, more community support and new facilities so young people can get help closer to home.“We are also increasing inpatient capacity, delivering 8,500 more mental health workers three years ahead of schedule, and investing more than £400 million in specialist mental health departments, centres and wider capital projects.”