Children making multiple suicide attempts before getting NHS
Children are making multiple suicide attempts before they can access NHS mental health care as stretched services struggle to cope with demand, a new report warns.
The charity Look Ahead said “limited capacity, staffing and wait times” were cited by all families it interviewed and found “these challenges of service delivery are real, exasperating and extremely damaging”.
Almost all patients reported poor access to crisis care services, with one saying it took several years before they could get help.
One parent said: “It was very clear from what the doctor had written that he [the child] has suicidal intentions and was planning for it.
It kind of felt that at that time CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) were only interested if he attempted it, which obviously we didn’t want him to do.”
Have you been impacted by the issues in this article? email rebecca.thomas@independent.co.uk
The ten families interviewed for the report said their children routinely end up in hospital A&E departments when suffering a mental health crisis, while one parent said their child only received community-based support “after several chaotic years of suicide attempts, addiction and psychosis”.
