'I have never seen such depths of anxiety and unhappiness amongst so many young people'
Calls for urgent action as report reveals a two year wait for mental health treatment and finds that waiting lists were ‘effectively closed’
By Sarah Ward
A local authority led investigation into the mental health services for young people in the West of the county discovered a two-year waiting list for treatment with children and teachers calling for more help.
The 63-page report by a group of councillors from a scrutiny committee of West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) paints a grim picture of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the area.
During a thorough review lasting most of last year, senior teachers gave evidence about a ‘missing layer of support’, a young person told how they had been able to take an overdose while in hospital care and organisations providing counselling spoke of a huge increase in demand.
Julia Cassiano, the head teacher of a Northampton primary said the area’s CAMHS 72 hour helpline ‘may as well not exist’ and said there is a lack of support for children in crisis. Chris Kiernan, the former interim director of children’s services at WNC also claimed the NHS was much more focused on adult’s health than children’s health.
The scrutiny group decided to carry out the review in November 2021 after hearing anecdotal evidence from the community about the sharp rise in young people needing mental health help post pandemic, coupled with data from public health which said the numbers of young people attending Northampton General Accident and Emergency department after attempting suicide or self harming was much higher than the national average.
Presenting the report on Tuesday evening to the cabinet, Cllr Rosie Herring, who chaired the scrutiny task and finish group, said:
“Although we anticipated that demand would be high, as we started to gather evidence from the different organisations the situation was worse than we expected.
“It was made clear that the waiting time for referral into CAMHS (which is the young persons mental health team) was more than two years and the criteria for being even accepted onto that waiting list kept changing to the extent that the waiting list was effectively closed to new referrals.”
This is the first time CAMHS has come under public scrutiny from a Northamptonshire council since the unitaries started in 2021.
Problems found by the review included; not enough school nurses, Brackley did not have any provision of CAMHS services at all with families having to travel to Northampton; a lack of bereavement services, the council had stopped providing its own therapeutic services and an absence of youth activities and clubs for young people. (In 2010 the Conservative administration at the former county council effectively shut down youth services in the county, making the majority of its youth workers redundant and closing down clubs.)
The review also concluded there was some inequity in service provision depending on the geography, with more services delivered in the north of the county, where a new mental health team schools pilot is currently being trialled.
CAMHS services in Northamptonshire are delivered by Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, which for several years has had an outstanding rating. As well as services for children with severe mental health needs, the trust coordinates the REACH service that gives counselling to young people before they reach crisis and access the core CAMHS provision.
Giving evidence to the review in January 2022 a member of its senior staff said the challenge was the significant increase in demand on services. The minutes read:
“Local services had experienced massive additional pressure in recent times. The number of young people with a diagnosable eating disorder had increased by 250% in the last two years. The number of referrals to core CAMHS had increased by 180%. The COVID-19 pandemic had increased general anxiety amongst young people, had kept young people in the home and had increased their exposure to domestic violence. The protection provided by attending school had not operated, which created the need to re-think previous approaches to identifying and addressing issues.”
A number of charities and youth organisations gave evidence to the review.
Evidence given by Sharon Womersley, Chief executive of The Lowdown, which provides counselling services, was minuted in the report. It said:
“The biggest issue for young people engaging with The Lowdown was anxiety, followed by low mood and family problems. These issues were the same as before the pandemic: what had changed was that they were now having a greater impact.
“Demand on services had tripled in size and it was not known when this trend would end. On a positive note, organisations like The Lowdown were able to react to new situations very quickly.”
Speaking at the meeting Labour’s Danielle Stone, who is a former teacher, urged the cabinet to take urgent action. She said:
“I have worked with young people all of my life and I have never seen such depths of anxiety and unhappiness amongst so many young people.
“There is a huge job to do and it is not a surprise we have reached this point. With the closures of the sure start centres, the dismantling of the youth service many years ago, there has been an extraordinary lack of investment in our young people.
“Young people don’t make themselves ill. They are made ill and we need to do something about that.”
Lib Dem Rosie Humphries said the current mental health provision for the county’s young people is ‘not fit for purpose’ and that the situation was ‘completely unacceptable’.
The report made a series of recommendations to the cabinet, which includes:
Requesting the new Integrated Care Board (led by Toby Sanders) develops a whole system strategy to provide effective mental health support for young people;
Asking the ICB to look at the feasibility of providing a school nurse and mental health first aider in all secondary schools and within clusters of primary schools;
The council creates a new youth strategy;
Top slicing school funding to create a pot that will enable schools to get quicker access for mental health support.
Cabinet member with responsibility for children and young people’s services Fiona Baker said she agreed with all of the recommendations. She said a decision about whether to top slice school funding to provide more immediate mental health support, was not in the power of the authority to decide but it would carry out a consultation with schools to find out whether this was wanted.
NN Journal contacted NHFT and received the following statement:
“Northamptonshire Healthcare (NHFT) is committed to providing quality mental health services which support children and young people.
“Nationally and locally CAMHS services have seen a continuous increase in demand and the number of referrals to the service, which has led to longer waiting times for those requiring specialist support.
“We are working hard, with system partners, to build our ability to respond, specifically REACH Youth Counselling Services to support children whilst they are waiting for CAMHS support. There are wellbeing cafes across the county that young people and their families can attend for support, without an appointment. In addition, to this, we are undertaking regular risk harm reviews for all children and young people waiting for specialist mental health support from NHFT CAMHS, to ensure they remain safe and supported.”
Last summer we reported on this issue after NHFT refused to give waiting list numbers.
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Adult service and support match the same problem.
Limited funding or poorly ran organisations add to the failing demand to the service.
West Northants Council recognise the need however seem not to want to invest funding in theses areas.
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