There is growing concern for young people with eating disorders

That is according to the Children's Commissioner for Wales, Peter Clarke, who says young people are being put on adult wards or sent hundreds of miles from home for treatment.

Mr Clarke says doctors have told him they are struggling to cope with the numbers of teenagers suffering from psychiatric problems.

In his annual report, published on Thursday, he has called on the Welsh Assembly Government to properly fund its strategy for child and adolescent mental health services.

Crisis

The commissioner says that health staff have told him that the service is in crisis.

Wales has fewer adolescent mental health beds per head of population than anywhere else in the UK.

There are no dedicated children's beds, nor is there an adolescent forensic service.

Peter Clarke says the service is in crisis

Mr Clarke is also concerned about the lack of inpatient treatment for children and teenagers with eating disorders.

He says nearly 200 people contacted him for advice last year, with more boys showing problems than girls.

The biggest area of individual concern was education, especially bullying.

The assembly has a strategy for adolescent mental health - called Everybody's Business - but the commissioner, who helped to write it two years ago, says it needs to be properly funded.

Unique

Peter Clarke was appointed as the Children's Commissioner for Wales in 2001.

The appointment, unique to Wales, came after a new Bill to extend the functions of the children's commissioner was announced in the Queen's Speech.

The "children's champion" was the key recommendation of the Waterhouse Report into abuse at children's homes in north Wales.