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Nikki Tyler, of Mosley Street, Barrow, believes her son’s wellbeing has been put in serious jeopardy by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Cumbria ever since they moved from Blackpool almost two years ago.
She says the comparison between Camhs in Cumbria and Lancashire is “astonishing”, with long waiting times for appointments here to deal with her son’s depression and anxiety making his condition worse.
Her son now struggles to do daily tasks by himself and is often reluctant to leave the house.
She said: “It’s heart-breaking. My son is so frustrated with the fact he can’t get into school. He keeps asking me: ‘When am I going to see someone to help me?’
“My son, when in Blackpool, was on the gifted and talented list and in the top 10 per cent of the whole country. He was taught and sent A-Level work and now his last report was 31 per cent school attendance.
“As a parent, it’s not something you are prepared for. I just think about these poor kids stuck in the system.
“What hope have they got for the future?”
Miss Tyler believes that the mental health sector for children in Cumbria needs an overhaul, calling the system disjointed and marred by a lack of communication.
She is backing the Evening Mail’s Healthy Young Minds drive to highlight the problems that exist and our campaign for positive change. She says she has also had to fight to get her son enrolled regularly on the Hospital and Home education programme.
Miss Tyler said: “The difference is in Blackpool if your child is under Camhs and they suspect autism, then everything is under one umbrella. It wasn’t a waiting game, it wasn’t a hassle or anything. They worked together.
“It’s the opposite here. I have never seen anything like it. It’s disgraceful.
“He was refused Camhs here even though he was registered at Blackpool. I went to my GP and he wrote to the orthopaedic and I phoned and chased it up through the system.
“He has had no therapy for coping mechanisms offered which I have been screaming and crying out for.
“I was told that Barrow has amazing support for autistic children.
“What I didn’t realise was that support mechanism was from charities and community groups because the NHS are letting children down here.
“It’s up to parents and carers to rally round.”
A statement from Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provides Camhs, said: “Although there has been some improvement in waiting times in recent months, waiting times are unacceptably long and lack responsiveness in some areas.
“We are addressing this by changing the way we communicate with families whilst they are on the waiting list offering them other means of support and advice.
“We have experienced over 100 per cent increase in referrals in south Cumbria in the last five years, with 522 in 2010/11 rising to 1,057 in 2014/15.”
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