PARENTS of mentally ill children demanded improvements to local services at a listening event which brought professionals and carers together for the first time.

Furness Carers at Hindpool Community Centre in Nelson Street, Barrow, hosted a forum involving families who have experienced turmoil when trying to access support for vulnerable young people and representatives from several health and social care organisations.

Professionals admitted services were not up to scratch in south Cumbria and listened to “horror stories” as parents described times of crisis when their children have had suicidal thoughts, been admitted to mental health units outside Cumbria, or not had access to the same psychiatrist.

Representatives from Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust – which runs the tier three Camhs service – agreed change was needed at the session yesterday.

Anne Burns, Cumbria County Council cabinet member for children’s services, said: “My first impression of today is of sorrow. I feel that the work that parents are doing on their own basically is absolutely immense and we need to do something about it.

“Listening to some of the horror stories about some of the services is distressing to say the least. The contract for tier three needs to be looked at because we think it’s not delivering some of the services.

“We need early intervention. We are doing that much work at the heavy end, there’s nothing left to get in at an early stage.”

The forum was arranged by Michael Cassells, volunteer support worker at Furness Carers, on the back of the Evening Mail’s Healthy Young Minds campaign, which is pushing for change in the mental health sector and calling for the problems that exist in Cumbria to be recognised nationally.

Around 15 parents attended the session along with representatives from local support groups and charities such as SAFA. It was their first opportunity to meet heads of all the relevant health organisations in the same room.

Professionals listened to the complaints of carers in small groups and fed back what they can do to address the issues.

Problems raised by the parents included frustration with emergency cover, poor communication, long waiting lists, and a lack of provision for teenagers outside of school and employment settings.

Dr Sara Munro, director of quality and nursing at CPFT, said the support to families in Furness was “nowhere near good enough” but said groups will come together to address the problems.

She said: “We need to wrap our services around the family and have one plan that everybody agrees to and get that package of comprehensive care early on.”

Craig Backhouse, chief executive of Furness Carers, hoped the listening forum would be the first of many so that agreed action points could be monitored.

He said: “I think it’s been a success. Everybody has been open.”