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Had they taken our concerns seriously

Posted By dangar234

"Had they taken our concerns seriously"

About: Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) / CAMHS Community Mental Teams

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter was referred to camhs in 2019 after a 6mth wait we eventually were seen at the family trauma centre. She presented with several anxiety traits, masking tendencies, social problems, lack of communication strategies, eating problems, and continuing low mood, loss of interest in usual hobbies, and school had reported her self harming in school.

Camhs had seen us once for an hour appointment and discharged her the same day saying she made eye contact and therefore couldnt have autism and she said she will start eating properly again and not hurt herself. That was is completely discharged and told to seek help from community. No further help offered.

Fast forward to now feb 2021 she has been rereferred back after serious self harm continuing and worsening the pandemic has seriously effected her mental health more. I feel that had they taken our concerns seriously and sought help for her she would not have gotten to the point she has now. My daughter also said that she doesnt feel they believed her at the initial consultation in 2019. I feel that camhs had failed my daughter and had they maybe checked in a few weeks or months after they discharged her they would have known she was struggling.

Now we face a long lengthy wait of telephone appointments in the middle of lockdown to help a suicidal teenager. Something in the system needs to change if our young people are falling through the net.

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Responses

Response from Jacquie Wilson, Acting service manager for CAMHS, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust 3 years ago
Jacquie Wilson
Acting service manager for CAMHS,
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 25/02/2021 at 15:11
Published on Care Opinion at 15:15

Hello, my name is Jacquie Wilson and I am the acting service manager for CAMHS in Belfast and South Eastern Trust area.

Firstly, I want to say thank you for sharing your story with us. I am sorry to hear about your experience with CAMHS.

I would like to offer you the chance to talk to me, as the acting service manager, to help me understand what happened with the delay in getting your daughter seen by the right service, so that we can continue to learn and improve.

I would be very grateful is you would email me jacquie.wilson@belfasttrust.hscni.net to arrange a conversation, either virtually or face to face in a socially distanced way. I want to explore your story further and hear what would have changed things for you.

I can hear, from your story, that one of the most challenging issues for your daughter was that she did not feel her believed at her first contact with CAMHS and how you feel that the Service has failed her, this must have caused a significant level of distress with you both. For that I am truly sorry, I would welcome the opportunity to hear more about your experience to try find a path forward for you and your daughter and ensure that situations like this don’t occur again.

I’d like to finish off by thanking you again for this story. We will learn from it and strive to provide a timely service and work in a more compassionate and collaborative way with our patients and their families.

Please do get in touch with me if you feel you would like to explore this further.

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