STRETCHED mental health services for the county's children and teenagers are said to be in crisis - as health and community leaders battle to boost provision and offer early intervention programmes for those in need. In the final exclusive installment of the Evening Mail's three part in-depth series, we look at the impact of the situation on youngsters across the area.

Read about a <strong><a href="http://www.nwemail.co.uk/News/Barrow/Distressed-boy-detained-in-Barrow-police-van-395437b5-55ca-4da3-9797-885e86674beb-ds">distressed boy who was detained in a Barrow police van.</a></strong>

CHILDREN experiencing mental health episodes are being detained in police cells because of an "unacceptable" lack of places of safety in Cumbria, the Evening Mail can reveal.

Ten youngsters in the county have been locked up in custody in the last three years, according to figures from a Freedom of Information request.

Cumbria has no 'four tier' mental health beds, despite a government white paper published in March stating that children with these most severe mental health issues should be treated close to their home and not kept in police cells.

SANE, a leading national mental health charity, has slammed the practice of locking away children in times of crisis in Cumbria.

Marjorie Wallace, SANE chief executive, said: “It is quite unacceptable that anyone suffering from a mental health condition, especially a young person, should be held in a police cell because a suitable safe place such as a hospital bed cannot be found.

"Nothing could be more damaging to the mental health of a young person than to be left feeling isolated and unprotected and that they have done wrong, when they may be self-harming or suicidal. 

“We thought we had come a long way from when as a society we judged mentally ill people, particularly those attempting suicide, with blame and shame.

"The use of police cells to detain people who may desperately need treatment shows how little progress we have really made.

"However, while psychiatric services remain in crisis, we will have to continue to rely on the police to keep young people and others safe.”

Children have been detained in police cells in Barrow, Kendal, Workington and Carlisle between April 2012 and March 2015 for their own safety and for the safety of the public. However, the government white paper from March states this culture is wrong.

It states that the "least restrictive setting possible, including real options for treatment at home and in the community" should be used when young children experience times of crisis and need a place to calm down and be safely treated. This includes not using police cells or secure care inappropriately.

The mental health system for Cumbria covers four tiers, ranging from early intervention and mild issues in tiers one and two, to major problems that require admission to inpatient facilities in tier four.

There is currently no tier four inpatient service available in Cumbria, meaning the most extreme cases of self-harm and mental health episodes must be sent outside the county, to police cells or other venues.

At the end of September 2013 there were 15 children, including an 11-year-old, from Cumbria in inpatient wards outside the county.

The NHS, agencies and various trusts are responsible for running the facilities and carrying out treatment across the different tiers.

A statement from the NHS Cumbria Clinicial 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, and this is the same across all specialities including very specialist physical health services, the team of clinicians needs to be large enough to be ensure safe levels of staffing throughout the year.

"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 use of tier four services by Cumbria children and young people is regularly monitored and if these increase to the point where a local service can be justified action will be taken to develop such a service locally."