Child mental health units still not built

FIVE new units for children with mental health problems have yet to be built, despite a Government promise to do so three years ago.

None of the projects has even gone beyond the tendering stage, despite a severe shortage of facilities for children and adolescents in need of in-patient psychiatric care.

Twenty-four children under the age of 16 had to be admitted or detained in adult psychiatric units last year, it emerged yesterday.