Camhs case study: ‘Every appointment was rushed. Staff were stressed’

Emma’s daughter Jane* was referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (Camhs) in Ballyfermot, Dublin by her GP six years ago. “She was cutting herself and very withdrawn.”

They were told, however, “she was not high enough risk to be taken on by Camhs”.

As she deteriorated Jane, who is now 19, became “more withdrawn, not sleeping and she started to experience extreme anxiety”.

“The cutting became more intense. She became suicidal. We had to monitor her 24/7,” says Emma. “I heard about Jigsaw and managed to get her on their wait list.” Jigsaw, funded by the Health Service Executive, provides support and therapy to young people to the age of 25, with mild to moderate mental health difficulties.

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“Ten minutes into Jigsaw we were told they could not work with her – she was too high risk,” says Jane. “I broke down. ‘Camhs say she is not high risk enough, you say she is too high risk. What am I to do?’

“They wrote to Camhs making it clear that if anything happened to her, it was on them. A few weeks later we had an appointment.”

Five years on from her first Camhs appointment, Jane has had “nothing that deals in a substantive way with [her] difficulties”, says her mother.

“Every time they suggested an intervention that might help, it came with a caveat – not enough staff, a long wait. When they suspected autism, the same – a wait so long for an assessment that she would have turned 18 and would no longer be in Camhs,” she says.

“We had no choice but to go private. Five months later we had an autism diagnosis which we expected would open a suite of support and information at Camhs. The resources and staff weren’t there. All the professionals were caring and committed but were trying to deal with crisis mental health in a system that was broken.

“They had nothing to offer except medication and time, but that was limited. Every appointment was rushed. Staff were stressed.

“Jane steadily worsened and had a breakdown. I had to give up my job to care for her. She needed hospital but we were warned Camhs beds were scarce.

“To save her life, we had to get her into a private hospital. She has been in and out of there for a year and is getting to a point where she has some hope of a future. It was nearly too late.”

*Not their real names