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A SELF-HARM charity in Barrow which has been credited with saving lives has spoken out of the frustration they face over funding insecurity.


Self-harm Awareness For All, which has a base in Duke Street, has seen a growing list of people with mental health problems in recent months and offers support and counselling.

If all funding channels were to stop today, SAFA says it would have enough money to offer support for roughly another nine months.

Funding ambitions

The charity, which relies on grants and fundraising, said funding uncertainty meant it struggled to strategically plan ahead despite ambitions to expand and reach more vulnerable people.

Rod White, SAFA chairman, said: "We have been lucky in getting significant support from the Big Lottery and Children in Need but it's not enough.

"Child and Adolescant Mental Health Services are overstretched and lacking staff in Cumbria historically and currently.

"The frustrating thing for us is we have got the skills but haven't got the funds to deliver all the services we want. We have got an excellent track record.

"As a society, we are reactive not proactive. For example, cyber-bullying and Facebook abuse and Twitter people took quite a long time to be aware of that."

Leaders of the charity believe, if adequately funded, they could support Camhs in Cumbria, which has seen an unprecedented surge in demand for tier three services and long delays for patients, and help deliver better early intervention.

Building rapport

Cindy Daltioni, chief executive of SAFA, said many people were being let down and, tragically, needed to get worse before they could get treated under the current system.

She said: "My biggest problem is we have to wait until someone's at the critical end to have intervention. People on the eating disorder side have a new goal to be ill enough to get treatment.

"Once you get the rapport with somebody, whatever the issues, then you can begin to open up and that's what SAFA pride ourselves on so much."

SAFA is backing the Evening Mail's Healthy Young Minds which calls for the government to review the funding formula for Cumbria, improvements so children can access specialist support and promotes early intervention.