NSW has Australia’s worst child psychiatrist shortage

July 22, 2026 — 5:47pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Fifty per cent of all mental health disorders emerge before the age of 14, yet access to early specialist care remains appallingly limited, with services increasingly focused on adolescents in acute distress.

Ethan Annetts is emblematic of the crisis facing many. He was 11 when he started self-harming and spent years on assessment waitlists, trapped in a cycle of hospital presentations and discharges with no ongoing care until, as a desperate and suicidal adult, he finally saw a psychiatrist.

Ethan’s story, as told to the Herald’s health reporter Rachel Rasker, is the victory of the human spirit at a time when the well-being of Australia’s young people is declining, with depression and anxiety........

© The Sydney Morning Herald