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Child and Adolescent Mental Health cuts
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
So from tracking news on my other Twitter, I had came across this: http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1076558/councils-cut-peoples-mental-health-services?%20Young%20People%20Now:chin:
I feel as though, although I'm in CAMHS that there's a long waiting list in some areas, with some YP waiting around over a year to be seen to. I volunteer for CAMHS anyhow, and we look at how we can better mental health services for YP. Which I'm looking at bringing this up in our next meeting.
Early intervention is definitely better, I waited ages to speak up, and now I have a handful of things, not just depression that could have been tackled while it wasn't as bad.
Also, I think there could be an increase of YP suicides, seeing as there's only so much hope we all hold, and if they're fighting to get support, but sit on a waiting list for so long, I think there could be a chance of them giving up and giving in, sadly.
I feel as though, although I'm in CAMHS that there's a long waiting list in some areas, with some YP waiting around over a year to be seen to. I volunteer for CAMHS anyhow, and we look at how we can better mental health services for YP. Which I'm looking at bringing this up in our next meeting.
Early intervention is definitely better, I waited ages to speak up, and now I have a handful of things, not just depression that could have been tackled while it wasn't as bad.
Also, I think there could be an increase of YP suicides, seeing as there's only so much hope we all hold, and if they're fighting to get support, but sit on a waiting list for so long, I think there could be a chance of them giving up and giving in, sadly.
- What's your take on this?
- Isn't early intervention better then late/no intervention?
- Also, do you think there could be an increase of YP suicides?
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Comments
I don't have specific experience of CAMHS but I do think that all NHS run services for mental health need improvements and major ones...from my experience - if you get the right GP then you get the necessary referral to the right place - get the wrong GP and you end up in an endless circle of going back and forth to them and still getting nowhere. I appreciate with cutting costs, etc they run on limited resources but if you take the ownership away from the NHS and look at the Government they need to invest more into mental health services as a whole.
In some respects I agree early intervention is better but sometimes that doesn't happen because the YP themself is caught up in being afraid to ask for help for reasons such as; not knowing what the outcome would be, feeling like they wouldn't be believed or that they would be judged, etc. Again, it isn't directly relevant to CAMHS but waiting for much longer than I should have done to actually seek counselling resulted in a whole load of other issues arising that could have been prevented...but that wasn't the system, that was me. In this instance - I believe focusing on reducing the stigma surrounding MH and educating everyone (not just YP) on MH issues would be a good starting point. Reducing the stigma would result in less people not speaking up when they need help and would reduce the feeling of isolation. I do agree that intervention (be it early or later) is much better than no intervention.
I think we will continue to see a rise in suicides of all ages until the stigma surrounding MH is reduced, when people know where to go for help and when people have the relevant information about what will happen when they ask for help. I was so terrified of being locked up in hospital if I ticked the "agree" box to suicidal feelings at my very first counselling session - that I kept quiet about it until much later on into counselling. Had I been given the relevant and necessary information in advance, I could have been completely honest and been helped much sooner.
I think it is important to educate YP on MH in schools like you would on physical health & wellbeing and sexual health. However, with parents and grandparents being from different generations - I think we need to be educating them too...my Mum still has the view that counselling is for severly depressed people who aren't safe to be on their own...that's not her fault - it's just the way she has been brought up and is her own experiences of how it was for her own Mum who was schizophrenic. Also she struggles to tell people the cause of my Dad's death because she has always been brought up that it isn't something you tell people because it isn't "normal". Not that she will admit to any of that!!!
I guess my point to all of this, is that if we reduce the stigma, re-educate people and give them the relevant information and invest more in to MH services - we would see a massive difference and improvements. Like any business, CAMHS are unable to give the full support individuals need when they run on tighter budgets and don't necessarily have all the resources they need...its time the Government took notice of the figures that speak for themselves and did something to improve MH services for everyone.
I think it's important to note that young people who are suicidal are going to be made a priority in any CAMHS service, if anything more now than before because clients have to be prioritised with the resources being so limited. I don't necessarily foresee a rise in suicides, but more likely a problem with recurring mental health problems because of the increasing 'in and out' culture and a lack of long-term support. also the fact that services are becoming more picky with who they will see means that there are many families who need support but have nowhere to go.
The challenge is getting the balance right between prioritising those in the worst condition, and using early intervention to reduce the work load.
Early intervention for some people may mean a relatively small amount of treatment is needed and can then be discharged from the system. On the other hand, if they don't get anything early on then things deteriorate and they end up much further down the line needing crises teams and inpatient treatment. And then so the viscious circle goes around.
Whowhere - it seems the police end up with more cases about mental health then they do crime cases, even if they say the crime is slowly reducing, maybe this has a stretch on them too? It sounds quite tough where you are!
WhiteLillies - thank you lots for your in depth reply, I don't think there's any questions to ask you! Thank you
Omghi - I guess it's teaching parents and teachers etc more about mental health as well, so they can intervene where necessary?
ScaryMonster - I agree, with early intervention though, things could be a lot worse then what they look on the surface, so maybe it's a case of who needs it most, but also how they equal it out to people that will benefit from it earlier as well, so a more appropriate time waiting on the waiting list etc
But I do agree that if there where more services for YP to go to (I'm speaking to the youth club soon about setting up a support group) then there would be less strain on the police, and other services.