RELATED ARTICLES:
South Cumbria kids detained in unsuitable hospital wards
Internet a factor in Cumbria children's mental health referrals
Barrow mum calls for mental health overhaul
Alastair Campbell backs campaign
Charity backs Cumbria mental health campaign
Mental health funding for young ‘must be sacrosanct’
Mental health crisis - Barrow family's anguish
Campaign puts Cumbria mental health in spotlight’
Bosses of failing Cumbria children's mental health services coin it in
Cumbria children's mental health services in crisis
Cumbria child mental health service blasted
The 16-year-old girl from Barrow, who has a history of cutting herself and taking overdoses, had to stay in a Lancaster mental health unit for more than a year collectively as there is no service in Cumbria which deals with extreme “tier four” cases that require inpatient admission.
The girl was admitted to specialist service The Junction on two occasions, the first lasting eight months and the second lasting around five months.
It meant she had to undergo her treatment away from friends, family and home comforts, with her father having to make the long journey via the A590 and the M6 every time he went to see here.
The father, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “The fact there’s no tier four in this county is shocking. For a young kid going to Lancaster it is overwhelming.
“We were lucky to get her in there. Brighton and Middlesbrough were mentioned – the other side of Manchester and Cheshire also.”
The Junction is an eight-bed service in Lancaster for 12 to 16-year-olds. The girl’s father said at one point there were five youngsters from the Barrow and Ulverston area staying there.
Cumbria has no tier four mental health beds, despite a government white paper published in March stating that children with the most severe mental health issues should be treated within their own communities. The situation means children are being sent outside of the county to different providers.
A statement from Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group said: “The provision of tier four beds is a very specialist service that only a very small number of children and young people will ever need.
“In order to run a very specialist service well, the team of clinicians needs to be large enough to be ensure safe levels of staffing throughout the year. This team also need to maintain their clinical expertise by seeing sufficient patients with a range of conditions within that speciality.
“We are fortunate that in Cumbria the numbers of children and young people who require this very specialist service remains small, so small that a tier four unit could not be safely maintained purely on the level of need that exists in the county.”
The girl’s mental health started to spiral out of control two years ago, following her parents’ split and the death of a grandparent which triggered two overdoses of paracetamol.
Her father said: “She seemed to be coping fine but around two years ago she started to lose a little bit of weight and be a bit more like teenagers are by spending more time in her bedroom.
“It came out she had been self-harming, cutting her arms. She was sent to somebody in Fairfield [assessment unit in Barrow] and was diagnosed with an eating disorder.
“Ever since then it’s just been delay after delay.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here