Mother's concern about children's mental health services

A Fermanagh mother has spoken out about her fear that her son may die if he does not get adequate mental health support.

Jade Davis has spoken out about what she believes are inadequacies with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).

She has fought to get appointments for her 12-year-old son over the past five years.

She described how she feels the buck has been passed around regarding her son’s care. He has a history of referral to the service and is water discharged within a few sessions.

However, he is now seeing the CAMHS team regularly.

She told this newspaper: “They have the minutes of the meeting where I said to them, if anything happens my son, I am holding you responsible.

"I am terrified that I'm gonna get up someday and my son is not going to be here because he's not getting the help he needs.”

She has been seeking help from CAHMS for the past five years: “My point to CAHMS is, I'm coming to them from he was seven years of age looking for help.”

Her son has a history of being discharged from the service after a few sessions and having his referral by GP rejected, she claims.

“CAHMS discharged him after one session, three sessions was the most they offered to him, and one of them wasn't even for him. It was a parent-only appointment.

“I told them at that time that I was unhappy for him to be discharged, the social services didn't want him discharged, and neither did the school," she claims.

She described how five years ago, her son’s primary school advised her to seek support for her son when he was seven and the lengths they went to support the child: “They were concerned, he was having angry outbursts, and they were concerned about his mental state, he had very low self-esteem and he had anxiety and things like that.

“He was referred to CAHMS at 7, the principal came to the appointment with me and the man saw him once and discharged him after an hour.”

Ms. Davis claimed: “He was re-referred to CAMHS in January 2023,  they rejected the referral because he was on the ASD waiting list and it would be up to them [ to treat] for any behaviour concern.

"The referral wasn’t about any behaviour concerns, it was about his mental health.”

“When he was in hospital [following an incident], he was seen the next day by the crisis team, but it was only like a month before that the GP had put in another referral and it was rejected by CAMHS.”

She described one terrifying incident in recent weeks where her son had an outburst and later got onto the roof of his school, she said: “CAHMS didn’t seem to be picking up about how he can escalate so quickly and how he is so impulsive.

“He had been to the canteen, and he got two bits of toast and he would try and push the boundaries a lot. He asked the teacher if he could go and get a third piece of toast, break times was over and he was told ‘No, you can't’.

He ran outside and climbed up on the roof over a piece of toast, that how dangerous it is. He could be in the house today and you could say no to him about something and he could run straight across the front of a car. He has no sense of danger whatsoever.”

Her son has not been able to attend school as they cannot manage his safety she explained: “He hasn’t been at school, the school has been trying to get CAHMS on board, they have been brilliant, the social worker is doing everything she can. I feel like CAHMS is trying to pass the buck back to the other agencies."

She described other incidents such as her son running away from home following an outburst: "I had to walk around the forestry at Necarne at 12 o'clock at night looking for him because he had absconded from the house and I had to get to police and everything and then whenever they did finally get them and get them home. I couldn't get him settled."

Ms.  Davis contacted First Minister, Michelle O’Neill for help and she believes that helped escalate the situation: “They were not taking me seriously and that's why I had to go to Michelle O’Neill because obviously with it coming from a higher power, they did sit up and listen then.

“It shouldn’t take for you to go to some of them people [such as politicians], to get them to listen."

She advised others in the same situation as her to seek help and support in accessing health services.

“There are some people out there that maybe have no support or they are not clued up, they don't know that they can go to other people for help to try and get CAHMS to do something.”

Her son has now been offered weekly appointments and is waiting for assessment, she hopes that this will bring an end to some of the roadblocks she has faced with CAMHS as she has tried to care for her son.

A spokesperson for the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) said: “These concerns have been shared with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), however due to patient/client confidentiality we would not be responding to individual cases.

“The CAMHS aims to deliver timely, responsive, compassionate care to the children, young people and their families in receipt of CAMHS care. The Trust works in partnership with family and carers in respect of the care, treatment and support arrangements for individuals using our services. In collaboration with all children services, we are committed to involving young peoples’ voices in the delivery of the service.

“If a patient/client or their relative has any issue in relation to their treatment or the service they have received, we would encourage them to raise these issues through the Trust's comments and complaints system - the Patients' Advocate Office. The Patients' Advocate Office can be contacted on (028) 7161 1226. All complaints received are investigated promptly and a response issued to the person.”